LONDON, March 19 (Reuters) – British prosecutors said they had charged two men with spying for Iran by carrying out surveillance of people and locations linked to the Jewish community, as part of an investigation which started before the conflict in the Middle East.
Nematollah Shahsavani, 40, a dual Iranian-British national, and Alireza Farasati, an Iranian national, 22, were charged following an investigation into their actions in north London over five weeks during July and August last year.
British lawmakers and the domestic spy agency MI5 have long warned of threats posed to Britain by Iran, with a number of arrests made and plots discovered in recent years, before the U.S.-Israeli military campaign started almost three weeks ago.
Counter Terrorism Police senior national coordinator Vicki Evans said the investigation should reassure Jewish communities that police would act on any threats to their safety.
“These are extremely serious charges under the National Security Act, which have come about following what has been a very complex investigation,” she said in a statement.
The two men had been arrested and detained earlier this month and are due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.
Police said two other men who they had arrested as part of that raid had been released without charge.
(Reporting by Sarah Young in London and Rajveer Singh Pardesi in Bengaluru; Editing by Kate Holton)
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