Two Romanian men were jailed for a combined 20 years at London's Old Bailey on Friday for the knife attack on Iran International presenter Pouria Zeraati, in a plot the sentencing judge ruled had been carried out on behalf of the Iranian state.
George Stana, 25, who acted as the getaway driver and had earlier conducted reconnaissance, was jailed for 12 years, while Nandito Badea, 21, a former professional footballer accused of wielding the knife, was given eight years. Both men were found guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm at Woolwich Crown Court in June.
The sentencing marks a significant moment in a case that British authorities have held up as a stark example of Iran using criminal proxies to target dissidents on UK soil. Mrs Justice Bobbie Cheema-Grubb told the court she was "sure that this was an attack carried out for and for the benefit of a foreign power", ruling that the connection to Tehran increased the sentences.
Zeraati was attacked on 29 March 2024 as he left his home on Queensmere Road in Wimbledon, south-west London, and walked towards his car. Two men approached him, and one asked for money before the presenter was held and stabbed three times in the thigh. The assailants fled on foot before being driven away in a blue Mazda 3 by Stana, and the group then left the UK on a flight to Geneva. Officers later traced the vehicle to New Malden.
The 36-year-old journalist was taken to hospital and later described the incident as a "warning shot". He returned to work at the broadcaster the following month, insisting that "the show must go on". In a victim impact statement, Zeraati told police the attack had left him "scared and anxious", and said he had been forced to relocate abroad fearing further reprisals.
The judge said the victim "was not selected at random" but had been targeted as a "prominent broadcaster for Iran International that was highly critical of the regime". She added that the evidence "overwhelmingly points" to the attack being carried out on behalf of the Iranian government. The court accepted that Stana knew, or ought to have known, that a foreign power was behind the plot, but ruled that Badea would not have been aware.
Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson KC told the court that Badea and Stana had been motivated by money but were acting as criminal "proxies" for the Iranian government. Prosecutors described the incident as "a planned attack preceded by reconnaissance, and which was ordered by a third party acting on behalf of the Iranian state".
The court heard that the attack had been long in the planning. In March 2023, Stana and another man were stopped by police near Zeraati's address after a neighbour reported concerns about two men acting suspiciously in a communal garden — an incident detectives later assessed had likely been the first instance of hostile reconnaissance. Stana left the UK the day after his arrest, returning the following year alongside Badea and a third man, David Andrei, with the trio travelling from Romania in January and February 2024. The prosecution said Badea and Andrei visited the property eight times across five dates and had flown into the country "expressly" for the attack, which they believed had been planned for more than a year.
The three men were arrested by Romanian police in December 2024, following work between the Crown Prosecution Service and the National Crime Agency to obtain extradition warrants. Badea and Stana were extradited to Britain later that month. Andrei remains in Romania, where he faces separate charges, and was not part of the UK trial.
Defence barristers had contested the extent of the men's knowledge and involvement. Peter Caldwell KC, representing Stana, described his client as "functionally illiterate" and "not aware of current affairs", arguing he "could not have known" he was operating on behalf of Iran. David Spens KC, for Badea, argued that the court "cannot be sure" it was his client who had stabbed Zeraati.
Responding to the sentences, Security Minister Angela Eagle said the "abhorrent attack" had been "carried out on behalf of Iran before both men cowardly fled the country". She added: "These sentences send a clear message: anyone acting on behalf of a foreign state to commit crimes in the UK will be identified, pursued and punished."
Chief Superintendent Kris Wright, of Counter Terrorism Policing London, warned of a growing trend. "Our recent casework shows an increasing use of so-called 'proxies' by hostile foreign states to conduct illegal activity and attacks in the UK," he said. "Our message to anyone being asked to carry out activity by foreign states or even unknown entities online is to think again, because you will be caught and you will face justice."
After the June verdict, the CPS's anti-terrorism chief Frank Ferguson said the attack had been "designed to silence a journalist through intimidation and violence".
Iran International, a Saudi-funded private broadcaster based in a heavily secured building in west London, was labelled a "terrorist" organisation by Tehran in 2022, alongside the BBC's Persian-language channel. Zeraati was a high-profile presenter on the channel, and a billboard bearing his face and a "Wanted: Dead or Alive" message had reportedly been seen in the Iranian capital. Iran's senior diplomat in the UK has denied Tehran was behind the attack.
The case forms part of a wider pattern of Iranian transnational repression documented by UK authorities. In October 2025, MI5 Director-General Ken McCallum reported that security agencies had tracked "more than 20 potentially lethal Iran-backed plots" over the previous year, adding that "Iranian state actors make extensive use of criminals as proxies — from international drug traffickers to low-level crooks".
A report by Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee published in July 2025 warned that Iran posed one of the gravest state-based threats to British national security, comparable to Russia and China. The Homeland Security Group told the committee that "the threat of physical attack on individuals in the UK is now the greatest level of threat we currently face from Iran".
In May 2024, UN experts said they were "deeply alarmed that death threats and intimidation against Iran International staff escalated into the violent stabbing of journalist Pouria Zeraati outside his home in London on 29 March 2024". Lawyers representing the broadcaster's reporters have since said that 45 journalists and 315 family members were targeted over a six-week period, with some told they would be killed unless they resigned by set deadlines.
The UK government has designated Iran under the enhanced tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme, which came into force in July 2025 and requires individuals and organisations to register arrangements with foreign states directing political influence activities. As of June 2026, 569 individuals and entities had been designated, including members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and criminal networks such as the Foxtrot Network. Last month, the government published a bill introducing new powers to address state-backed organisations.
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