counterterrorism

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.

The incident in London comes after the UK’s national threat level was raised to severe last week.

British counterterrorism police are investigating an arson attack at a former synagogue in London, the lates in a wave of attacks targeting the Jewish community in the United Kingdom’s capital.

Officers said they responded to the incident early on Tuesday in the Tower Hamlets borough.

Police said no one was injured in the arson attack but confirmed the fire was deliberately set, adding that a set of gates and a lock at the front of the building sustained minor damage.

Last week, the UK’s national threat level was raised to “severe”, meaning an attack is considered highly likely. The government said the increase was due to what it described as a “broader Islamist and extreme right-wing terrorist threat” posed by individuals and small groups in the UK.

The arson attack came just hours before Prime Minister Keir Starmer held a meeting at his London residence focused on tackling anti-Semitism. The government said the meeting was arranged in response to rising anti-Semitism in the UK after two attacks last week in which two Jewish men and one Muslim man were stabbed in London.

Several arson attacks have occurred at synagogues and Jewish sites in London since late March.

“We are taking this incident extremely seriously, and we will be working closely with colleagues from counterterrorism policing to support the investigation,” Detective Chief Superintendent Brittany Clarke said. “The building targeted has not been operational as a synagogue for some years, but that will be of little comfort to the Jewish community in Tower Hamlets, Hackney and beyond, who are first in my thoughts this morning.”

Starmer said he was fast-tracking legislation in response to the increase in attacks, calling the situation a “crisis”.