Arrest of Third Suspect in Attack on Pouria Zareati in London

British police announced on Wednesday, January 9, that a third individual has been arrested in connection with the knife attack on a Persian-language journalist in London. This attack occurred last April. Pouria Zareati, an Iranian-British journalist working for 'Iran International', was injured in the leg near his residence in the Wimbledon area of southwest London. The British anti-terrorism police have focused their investigation on the possibility that Zareati was targeted due to his work with this critical Iranian government news network. Two Romanian men, 19-year-old Nadiatu Badea and 24-year-old George Stan, were previously arrested and charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent. They are scheduled to appear in a London court on Friday, January 19. The Metropolitan Police of London stated on Tuesday that a third man, aged 40, was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm. He was released on bail until April, and police investigations are ongoing. As part of their inquiries, police conducted searches in four neighborhoods in the 'Cricklewood' and 'Finchley' areas of north London. In recent years, police, security officials, and British politicians have repeatedly warned about the increasing use of Iranian government-backed criminal gangs to carry out terrorist attacks in the UK. Last winter, an Austrian individual was convicted of gathering information that could have been used for an attack on the office of this television network in London. Meanwhile, Ken McCallum, the head of Britain's domestic intelligence agency (MI5), announced about two months ago that the agency and British police had responded to 20 potential deadly plots and threats supported by the Islamic Republic against citizens and residents of the UK over nearly the past three years. Source: Reuters