Arrest in London of a man and a woman suspected of assisting Iranian intelligence services

A man and a woman, suspected of assisting Iranian intelligence services, were arrested in London, police announced Thursday. In its press release, the Metropolitan Police did not specify the nationality of the woman, aged 42, nor that of the man, aged 60, arrested Wednesday by anti-terrorist police officers at two different addresses, one in the north of the capital and the other in the northwest.

They are suspected of “assisting a foreign intelligence service. The country linked to this investigation is Iran,” police said. They were released under “strict conditions”. These arrests come after two searches at the end of June, but which are not linked to the attacks perpetrated in recent months against places linked to the Jewish and Iranian communities, the police further clarified.

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Increased security measures

At the end of April, two Jewish men were stabbed in the London district of Golders Green, an attack described as terrorist by the police. The United Kingdom subsequently raised its terrorist threat level by a notch.

A series of fires and attempted fires have also targeted synagogues in the northwest of the capital since the end of March, where a large Jewish community lives. In October 2025, an attack also left two people dead at the Manchester synagogue.

In May, a Greek national was arrested and charged on suspicion of helping Iranian intelligence spy on a journalist from Iran International, a Persian-language television channel banned by Tehran and broadcasting from London. Its premises had been targeted the previous month by an attempted arson, for which two young men and a teenager were charged.