Iranian TV presenter stabbed in London flees to Israel for safety | Transnational Repression

An Iranian TV presenter who was attacked in London by men suspected of acting on behalf of the Tehran regime has fled to Israel, saying he no longer felt safe in the UK.

Pouria Zeraati said the UK’s approach to the threat posed by Iran on British soil could not guarantee its security.

Zeraati, a presenter for Iran International, a Persian-language news channel, was stabbed by a group of men outside his home in Wimbledon, south London, in March.

Before the attack, the London-based network had received repeated threats from Iran, and British intelligence had foiled at least 15 plots to kidnap or kill employees of the television network.

Today, the 36-year-old reluctantly left London with his wife for the Middle East, saying the UK’s strategy towards the Iranian regime meant he felt able to strike on British soil with little repercussion.

Speaking from a location in Israel that he declined to make public, Zeraati said: “Where I live now is a little safer.”

Officers from SO15, the Metropolitan Police’s counter-terrorism command, have briefed their counterparts in Israel on the risk posed to Zeraati by the Iranian regime.

“There have been exchanges between the British police and the local police,” Zeraati said. “They are aware of my situation and have taken additional measures to ensure that I am safe in Israel.”

Before his move, SO15 officers had tried to reassure Zeraati that he would be safe in the UK.

“The police told me, ‘You are safe at the moment. You live in a safe country, there is no serious and imminent threat.’ But I replied that there was no imminent threat against me before the attack.”

His move 3,000 miles away, to a country at war and at risk of further conflict, will raise new questions about the UK’s security for dissidents targeted by foreign states.

Counter-terrorism police are continuing to investigate the attack, with one lead suggesting that the group that attacked Zeraati belonged to an Eastern European criminal gang.

The Iranian regime has previously used criminal proxies to target its critics on Western soil. Indeed, hiring individuals with no apparent ties to Iran makes it harder for police to counter a potential attack.

Less than four hours after stabbing Zeraati in the leg, three suspects left Heathrow Airport. Zeraati said a Metropolitan Police officer warned him that another attack could be fatal.

“One of the police officers involved in the case told me that what they did to me was a warning shot. When criminal gangs warn someone before killing them, they stab them in the back of the leg. It was a very clear message: ‘We will kill you next time.’”

A recent report, based on the testimonies of dozens of exiled Iranian journalists living in the UK, reveals that the level of transnational threat they face is “unprecedented”. Nearly 90% of Iranian journalists surveyed by the press freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders confirmed that they had been the victims of online threats or harassment in the past five years.

Last year, employees of the BBC’s Persian-language news service in London told the Guardian they were terrified to walk alone after being harassed by Iranian authorities.

Despite such levels of intimidation and signs that Iran was prepared to orchestrate physical attacks on British soil, Zeraati said the UK’s approach meant the Iranian regime was able to act with impunity.

Following revelations last December that Tehran was plotting to kill two more Iran International journalists in Britain, the Foreign Office announced sanctions against members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

However, Zeraati – who said he had recovered physically, but not mentally, from the attack – said the sanctions were too obscure and did little to punish Tehran.

“These sanctions were absurd,” he said. “The attack on me happened about three and a half months later. This shows that these measures are not working.”

Instead, he said, the UK should harm the Iranian regime by targeting its assets and showing that there is a “financial consequence” to committing criminal acts on British soil.

“If such a consequence occurs, the Iranian regime will reconsider its decision to act in this way,” Zeraati added.

Zeraati is among many calling for the British government to ban the IRGC, an arm of the Iranian state, as a terrorist organisation. The previous British government’s position was to sidestep the issue in favour of maintaining direct diplomatic relations with Iran. It seems unlikely that the new Labour government will make a hasty decision.

Iran International claims to provide independent coverage of events in the country, but the regime in Tehran has declared it a terrorist organization and said its workers would be prosecuted by its security services.

Iran’s chargé d’affaires in the UK, who heads its diplomatic mission, denied any link between the Iranian regime and the Zeraati attack.

The Metropolitan Police have been contacted for comment.