British Police Arrests Third Suspect in Attack on Iranian Journalist

British police announced on Wednesday, January 9, that they have arrested a third suspect in connection with the stabbing attack on Pouria Zareati, a journalist for Iran International. The police only mentioned that the new suspect is a 40-year-old man who has been released on bail. Accordingly, the case of this attack is under the jurisdiction of the British anti-terrorism police. The police say they are still investigating the connection of this attack to Mr. Zareati's employment at Iran International, which has drawn the hostility of the Iranian government. Previously, two Romanian men were arrested in connection with this case. Mr. Zareati was attacked in London on March 30 by several 'unknown men.' The British prosecutor's office announced on December 6 that the assailants who stabbed Pouria Zareati are Romanian citizens who were arrested in Romania on December 5. A spokesperson for the British prosecutor's office at that time stated that Nandito Badia, 19, and George Stana, 23, are charged with intentional bodily harm with the intent to cause serious injury. Western sources believe that the individuals behind this attack acted on behalf of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Recently, Ulisse Elian, a member of the Dutch House of Representatives, also reported receiving a threatening email from the Iranian embassy in The Hague. According to him, this message pressured him due to his Iranian nationality through 'his father's blood' and claimed that Iranian laws apply to him. His father, Afshin Elian, is a Dutch-Iranian lawyer who fled the Iranian government after the murder of two family members. Anti-terrorism investigators say that since 2022, a series of plots to 'kidnap or even kill... individuals deemed enemies of the Iranian regime' have been designed by several intermediaries and largely thwarted. Another example is the 'assassination plot' against Masih Alinejad, a journalist and political activist opposed to the Islamic Republic. U.S. prosecutors previously charged one person two years ago and two others in January last year with plotting to assassinate this human rights activist, all three of whom were Azerbaijani citizens and members of criminal gangs in Europe and the U.S. who were handed over to the U.S. after their arrest. A federal court in New York this November also charged Rouhollah Bazghandi, former head of the counter-intelligence department of the IRGC, with organizing this plot. The Islamic Republic, which has a history of physically eliminating its opponents at various historical periods both inside and outside the country, has recently threatened numerous journalists and political activists abroad with physical elimination through cyberspace or pressured their families inside the country.