Tehran's secret services are reportedly targeting Iranians abroad more, especially journalists and dissidents. According to Western analysts, a strong response is underway to the popular uprising that is escalating in Iran, triggered by the brutal death of the young woman, Mahsa Amini, who was allegedly killed in police custody last September. The authorities of Tehran they responded with a widespread crackdown, beating, shooting and arresting protesters and sentencing at least five demonstrators to death this week.
In Britain Police have reported on increased threats by Iranian security forces against two Iranian British journalists and their families. Stringent security measures have therefore been implemented in their homes and workplaces.
The British National Security Service reported that, in the year 2022 alone, there would have been at least 10 attempted kidnappings or attempted killings of British individuals residing in the United Kingdom solely because they were considered enemies of the Iranian republic.
The WP reported the MI5 head's statement, Ken McCallum"Iranian intelligence agencies are ready to take reckless actions to attack opponents in Western countries or to try to lure them to Iran.”
“Targeting Iranians abroad is a pattern of behavior that is intensifying in the context of this uprising”, he told WP Sanam Vakil, Deputy Program Director Middle Fast North Africa at the London expert group Chatham House.
Some of Iran's main targets are journalists working for Persian-language media, such as the BBCPersian e Iran International, the latter criticized for its links with theSaudi Arabia, as Iran's well-known regional rival.
Iranian officials accused both UK-based outlets of inciting riots and "support terrorism“. The company headed by Iran International denounced, in a statement on November 7, that a powerful intimidation campaign against Iranian journalists working abroad is underway.
The director of Iran International, Mehdi Parpanchi, said in an interview on Wednesday that media affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the most powerful Iranian security organization, have already threatened the broadcaster in the past, but never as seriously as in the last few hours.
British police said the broadcaster's office in London was under surveillance, as were the homes of the two Iranian-born employees.
On November 11, the British Foreign Secretary summoned an Iranian official to London to clarify that threats and intimidation of any kind against journalists or anyone living in the United Kingdom will not be tolerated.
In Berlin, reports AP, three people were injured last October at the hands of three hooded men who targeted a group of demonstrators who were praising democracy in favor of the Iranian people and the freedom of women.
In late September, police in London and Paris clashed with protesters trying to reach Iranian embassies during demonstrations in support of the uprising. In recent weeks, Iranian athletes have also used international sporting events as protest platforms, raising fears for their safety once they return to Iran. The authorities are extremely concerned about the protests or demonstrations of solidarity during the upcoming World Cup in Qatar.
In July 2021, US federal prosecutors indicted four Iranian agents on charges of plotting to kidnap the journalist and activist Masih Alinejad, residing in New York. In another shocking case, Iran lured the dissident to the country in 2019 Ruhollah Zam, resident in France and founder of a popular Telegram channel. He was executed the following year. In 2017, masked assailants shot and killed in Istanbul Saeed Karimian, Director of GEM Group, a Persian-language media conglomerate.