News

Iranian intelligence was suspected of targeting a leading critic in Londonthrough an individual who had earlier been jailed for hiring a hitman to kill a US-based Iranian broadcaster.

A cable from the US embassy on Grosvenor Square reported that Ali Reza Nourizadeh, a prominent opponent of Iran's leadership and a regular commentator on Voice of America, the Washington-funded radio station, was targeted while in the British capital in 2009 by Mohammad Reza Sadeqinia, an Iranian national who introduced himself as a "big fan" of Nourizadeh.

A secret dispatch detailing the agent's activity in London says: "Nourizadeh met Sadeqinia on several occasions in London and Washington DC but became suspicious when Sadeqinia took large numbers of photos, including of Nourizadeh's vehicle.