CPJ welcomes conviction of 2 men for attack on Iran International journalist in London

London, June 9, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the conviction of two Romanian men found guilty of wounding journalist Pouria Zeraati in London in 2024 in a carefully planned attack that prosecutors said was linked to the Iranian state.

Zeraati, a prominent news presenter for the Persian-language broadcaster Iran International, was stabbed three times in the leg close to his southwest London home on March 29, 2024, and subsequently needed hospitalization. His attackers immediately fled the U.K.

On June 5, jurors at Woolwich Crown Court found Nandito Badea, 21, and George Stana, 25, guilty of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. The two men, who denied the charges, will be sentenced on July 3. A third man accused of involvement, David Andrei, was arrested in Romania but could not be extradited to the U.K.

“The evidence presented in this trial was deeply chilling, showing the level of planning and extended surveillance that preceded Pouria Zeraati’s stabbing. This was a targeted, deliberate, and funded attack, and while it is welcome news that two men have been convicted for conducting it, those who ordered it must also be held accountable,” said Fiona O’Brien, CPJ’s director for Europe and Central Asia. “The level of threat to Iranian journalists in the U.K. — and to their families back in Iran — has only risen since 2024, so it is also vital that the U.K. government steps up its response to this kind of transnational repression.”

In a statement, Frank Ferguson, head of the U.K.’s Crown Prosecution Service’s Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said evidence presented in court showed the defendants were “not acting on impulse, but were recruited, funded, and directed to carry out violence.”

He said the convictions demonstrate “the seriousness of an offense designed to silence a journalist through intimidation and violence.”

While the trial judge has yet to determine whether Zeraati’s attack was linked to Iran, London’s Metropolitan Police said foreign states were increasingly using proxies to target perceived opponents abroad.

Mehdi Hosseini Matin, who was head of Iran’s diplomatic mission to the U.K. at the time of the attack, denied that Iran was linked to Zeraati’s stabbing.

In a separate case, the trial of a Greek national accused of spying on a U.K.-based Iran International journalist is due to begin on June 19. And in 2023, a Chechen-born Austrian national was convicted of conducting surveillance on Iran International premises and sentenced to three years and six months in jail.  

Exiled Iranian journalists have long been targeted for their work, facing physical and online attacks, sanctions and judicial proceedings, and the harassment of their family members back in Iran. The level of threat has increased in recent months, due to increased international attention on coverage of Iran.