Romanian Nationals Guilty of Stabbing Journalist

Two Romanian nationals have been found guilty of stabbing a journalist in Wimbledon on behalf of the Iranian regime in an attempt to 'silence' him.

Pouria Zeraati works for the Persian language channel Iran International that is critical of the Iranian government. He was attacked as he walked to his car near his home that is just around the corner from the world-famous All England Lawn Tennis Club.

The jury was told that Andrei was not on trial because he could not be extradited from Romania.

Pouria Zeraati said the attack was 'very frightening', and added Badea had first asked him for £3 before he pulled out a knife.

'He started stabbing the back of my right thigh very quickly. All the time he was looking me in the eye,' he said.

Posters of him had been put up in the Iranian capital Tehran with the words 'Wanted: dead or alive' written on them.

Ch Supt Kris Wright of Counter Terrorism Policing said: 'I believe he was targeted because of his role as the vocal opposition to the Iranian regime here in the UK. The coverage that he has globally is significant. An attack on him could be seen not only as an attack to silence him, but also for Iran to send a message to wider populations.

'As we see in a number of cases linked to overseas influence, I would describe these offenders as 'proxies'. People for hire, local criminals - or not so local criminals - willing to undertake acts for money rather than because of their beliefs or affiliation to a regime's beliefs.'

Wright said detectives are seeing 'more and more cases' linked to overseas regimes trying to exert their influence in the UK.

He said counter terrorism policing was 'working tirelessly to bring people to justice' and to send a very strong message - 'that those activities will not be tolerated here in the UK at all.'

A year before the attack, Zeraati's wife had filmed Stana and another man in the communal garden in front of their Wimbledon home. The men were stopped by police and found to be carrying a cricket bat and a hockey stick.

There were then several days of reconnaissance on their street in the days before the attack in March 2024.

Money from her account was then transferred to accounts linked to Badea and Stana. She also paid for their flights between Bucharest and London.

The prosecution said that this showed that the attackers were being funded by others, through Hemroc Ltd and Stana's sister.

In his teens, Badea was briefly a professional footballer in Romania playing for FC Astra Giurgiu and CS Blejoi. But he quit football because of the low pay and started working in construction.

Badea said he was recruited to come to London by Constantin 'Bebe' Matache and Catalin Dumitru to work in construction, and was promised £3,000 per month, but the work never materialised.

In his evidence he had claimed that he thought the job in Wimbledon was to 'slap' Zeraati for sleeping with Matache's wife and to steal a watch.