Two Iranian men have been convicted of spying for an Iranian intelligence service by carrying out surveillance on journalists and a lawyer in the United Kingdom, the BBC reported.
Mostafa Sepahvand, 41, and Farhad Javadi Manesh, 46, were convicted of "assisting a foreign intelligence service" at Woolwich Crown Court on Thursday. They were tasked by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps with monitoring the targets. The BBC reported that Sepahvand intended to carry out a "violent attack" against at least one of them, while Manesh helped with planning. A third man, Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 57, was cleared of the same charge.
Sepahvand was in contact with two men with Iranian telephone numbers. Police seized 534GB of data that showed Sepahvand and Manesh were given documents that included pictures of targets, their work addresses, the make and colour of their cars and the names of pets. They then used ChatGPT to carry out further research. The pair, from west London, are asylum seekers who had been granted temporary leave to remain. Sepahvand arrived in the UK in a lorry in 2016, and Manesh arrived via small boat in 2019, the BBC reported.
Targets, ChatGPT searches, and a December sentencing
Sepahvand conducted surveillance and reconnaissance in preparation for inflicting violence on several "subjects" in the UK. These included journalists Mojtaba Pourmohsen and Kambiz Hosseini, who worked for the London-based Persian broadcaster Iran International, Jonathan Turner, a founding member of UK Lawyers for Israel, and a media production professional.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans, the senior national co-ordinator for Counter-Terrorism Policing, said it was the first time ChatGPT case search history had been presented in a state threat case. "It's something we're beginning to see more of as AI tools become more widely available and people become more aware of them," she said. Evans also said it was clear from the evidence that at times Sepahvand felt he was being mistreated by his Iranian handlers, who had not paid him, a pattern she said is common in these cases. Sepahvand had claimed he participated out of fear of the consequences of refusing, but the prosecution described this as "entirely bogus." In voice notes sent to an Iranian contact, he said he had been promised that a conviction for theft in Iran would be "sorted out." He also asked for £150,000 in exchange for "finishing off" a target, stressing that he would "do it," the BBC reported.
Frank Ferguson, of the Crown Prosecution Service's counter-terrorism division, said the two men had been promised rewards for sending intelligence back to contacts in Iran. "Sepahvand himself was willing to go beyond surveillance to commit serious violence against their targets," he said. "Thankfully, the defendants were stopped before any attack could take place." A spokesperson for Iran International said the verdicts would not "make the lives of our journalists any safer so long as the Islamic Republic of Iran continues its campaign of death threats and violence against them," and that Hosseini, Pourmohsen and others remain under threat. Sepahvand and Manesh will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on Dec. 17.