TWO men who stabbed a TV presenter in the streets of London have been found guilty of the “targeted” knife attack, said to be on the orders of the Iranian regime.
Persian-language journalist Pouria Zeraati was found stabbed outside his home in Wimbledon on March 29, 2024, after appearing on a “Wanted: dead or alive” poster in Tehran.
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The journalist Pouria Zeraati was stabbed three times in the thigh outside his home Credit: PA
Two men were found guilty of a “targeted” knife attack following the stabbing of a journalist Credit: PA
The Romanian nationals Nandito Badea, 21, and George Stana, 25, were found guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm on Friday by a jury.
Zeraati is a high-profile face of Iran International, which the Iranian regime designated as a terrorist organisation and branded “a network of spies”.
Its news station was based in Chiswick until February 2023, when threats made against the network, its employees and their families led to it relocating temporarily to Washington DC.
Zeraati had appeared, along with other journalists, on “Wanted: dead or alive” posters that were put up in the Iranian capital Tehran.
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The attackers had waited outside Zeraati’s home and attacked him while he was walking to his car Credit: Pouria Zeraati
Pouria Zeraati and other journalists on a “Wanted: dead or alive” poster in the Iranian capital Credit: Counter Terrorism Policing/PA Wire
A jury heard that Nandito Badea brandished a knife during the fatal attack on March 29, 2024 Credit: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire
George Stana was caught on CCTV waiting in the getaway car during the incident in south-west London Credit: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire
The court heard that while walking to his car in Queensmere Road, Zeraati was attacked by Badea and another man named David Andrei, who is still in Romania and was not on trial.
Badea wielded the knife, according to the victim and attacked him.
Zeraati was stabbed three times in the thigh in what prosecutors described as “a planned attack preceded by reconnaissance, and which was ordered by a third party acting on behalf of the Iranian state”.
He told ITV News: “All I was thinking was, where is he going to stab? Is he going to stab my neck? My heart? My kidney? Will I be alive in the next few seconds or not? This is a moment that you don’t want to experience in your life.”
Stana waited in a blue Mazda 3 getaway car which was spotted on CCTV footage during “hostile reconnaissance” carried out before the attack, the prosecution said.
During their escape, the attackers were seen laughing as they fled the scene, jurors heard.
Badea, Stana and Andrei fled to Geneva, Switzerland, after the stabbing.
They ordered a taxi using the Bolt app, initially setting the drop-off location as Tottenham, then adjusting it to Luton, and finally Heathrow Airport.
In court, Badea and Stana said they were surprised by the stabbing and claimed Andrei was the real culprit.
Badea said he was only there to keep an eye on a man said to be having an affair with another man’s wife.
He added that Andrei had told him to approach Mr Zeraati and ask for money, but he then came up from behind and stabbed the journalist.
Badea said he had “no idea” Mr Zeraati was a campaigning journalist.
During his evidence, Stana said “it was a big surprise” when two men he drove from the scene said there had been a stabbing.
The plan was to approach this man, slap him a few times to tell him to stop sleeping with someone’s wife and take his watch, according to the former decorator.
Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson KC said all three men had acted as a team and carried out “extensive surveillance and reconnaissance”, got a getaway car and “had clearly made their plans”.
He said: “They had not devoted so much time to surveillance for a robbery, but for the targeted knife attack that in fact then happened.
“The prosecution say that the attack, which involved the stabbing of Pouria Zeraati, was committed by two assailants and a getaway driver, was preceded by reconnaissance, and was ordered by a third party.”
Despite both men denying charges, the jurors found the pair guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
They are to be sentenced at the Old Bailey on July 3.
The former midfielder, who played for Romanian teams Astra and Blejoi, came to England to do construction work after his professional football career ended.
The defendants’ presence in the UK, including the cost of the ongoing hostile surveillance, was funded by others including a company called Hemroc Ltd and via Stana’s sister’s Revolut account, the prosecution said.
The first “hostile surveillance” took place outside Mr Zeraati’s address on March 1 2023, the court heard.
Stana said he was paid to “scare” someone by puncturing their car tyres and smashing the windows with a cricket bat.
He had latex gloves, a pair of scissors and a mask when he was arrested in the street, shortly after having been in the rear garden of Mr Zeraati’s block of flats with another man.
The blue Mazda was later found abandoned in New Malden, south-west London.
After the verdict, Chief Superintendent Kris Wright, head of protective security operations for Counter Terrorism Policing London, said the defendants had fled abroad thinking they could evade justice but efforts from the investigation team and international partners had shown “we will do everything to come after people who commit these offences and that there is nowhere to hide.”
Frank Ferguson, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s special crime and counter terrorism division, said the evidence showed this was “a deliberate, targeted attack on a journalist, carried out after months of planning and surveillance”.
He added: “These convictions reflect the strength of that evidence and the seriousness of an offence designed to silence a journalist through intimidation and violence.”
