July 17 (UPI) — A 39-year-old man was due in court in London on Friday accused of breaching national security law by assisting Iran’s intelligence service.
Counter-terrorism police charged Vahid Aberi, of Liverpool, with aiding the intelligence service of another country under the 2023 National Security Act after arresting him in Birmingham on Wednesday following an investigation, the Met said in a news release.
Commander Helen Flanagan, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said that while authorities were seeing “a significant and sustained increase” in cases involving national security, there was no threat to the public in this specific instance.
“We have seen a significant and sustained increase in the tempo of our work in national security investigations in recent years. This case is yet another example of where we’ve intervened to disrupt suspected activity linked to foreign intelligence services,” Flanagan said.
“While we can’t comment in detail around the allegations now that a man has been charged, I do want to reassure the public that we have not identified any direct threat to them nor any threat towards a community or individual in connection with this investigation,” she added.
Aberi was held at a West Midlands police station while police carried out raids at addresses in the Birmingham and Liverpool areas. Charges were authorized by the Crown Prosecution Service ahead of his appearance at Westminster Magistrates Court.
The case comes two weeks after a judge at the Old Bailey sentenced two Romanian nationals to 12 and eight years in prison for a knife attack on Iranian independent TV journalist Pouria Zeraati in London in 2024 carried out on behalf of the Iranian state.
Nandito Badea, 21, and George Stana, 25, who were arrested in Romania along with a third suspect, were extradited to Britain to face prosecution.
Following their sentencing, the Foreign Office summoned Iran’s charge d’affairs to demand Tehran immediately cease its attempts “to undermine U.K. sovereignty and security.”
On Monday, the government designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right as national security threats with anyone convicted of supporting the groups facing up to 14 years in prison.
The IMCR has claimed responsibility for seven attacks linked to Jewish and Israeli communities in Britain, including a March 23 arson attack on Jewish volunteer ambulances in Golders Green in north London.
In March, counter-terrorism police in London arrested four Iranian men on suspicion of conducting surveillance on behalf of Iranian intelligence on Jewish-community-linked individuals and locations in the capital.
