The Tehran government has denied that it had any part on the attack on an Iran International TV presenter outside his London home.
Pouria Zeraati was stabbed in the leg outside his south-west London home Friday. He is recovering in hospital, from where he posted a picture on social media over the weekend. Two unidentified men were reported to have committed the assault, before jumping into a waiting getaway car.
The Observer newspaper reports Iran’s charge d’affaires, Mehdi Hosseini Matin, as asserting that Iran “denies any link” to the attack on Zeraati. Matin took to social media Saturday, saying Iran had “no link to this story of this so-called journalist.” He wrote that the claim was “without evidence.”
It adds that the Metropolitan police said a motive for the attack was not yet clear, but Zeraati’s job and recent threats to UK-based Iranian journalists meant the investigation was being led by counter-terrorism officers. A spokesperson for the Met said the investigation into the attack on Zeraati remained in “very early stages.”
The Observer reports that staff at Zeraati’s employer, Iran International TV, have been subject to threats from the Iranian regime, which considers the broadcaster a terrorist organisation.
The paper quotes Adam Baillie, spokesperson for the channel, saying: “There are credible threats which are issued against individuals, then they receive visits from the counter-terror police and Met police and then they have to take precautions. It’s very alarming.”
Iranian dissidents living on UK soil have previously told The Observer they do not feel safe in the country and that the Iranian authorities are using transnational repression to silence them.