Terror scout guilty of spying on UK-based dissident Iranian broadcaster

A terror scout has been found guilty of spying on a dissident Iranian television channel in the UK after it was put on a “wanted list” by the hostile regime.

Magomed-Husejn Dovtaev, 31, carried out hostile reconnaissance for others unknown at the London headquarters of Persian-language television channel Iran International in February.

Following a trial at the Old Bailey, the Chechnya-born Austrian national was found guilty of attempting to collect information for terrorist purposes.

Dovtaev made no reaction in the dock when the jury delivered its unanimous verdict on Wednesday after nearly seven hours of deliberations.

Judge Richard Marks KC remanded him into custody to be sentenced on Friday.

Afterwards, Iran International spokesman Adam Baillie said its journalists would not be “cowed by threats”.

He said: “This trial was a reminder of the threats journalists and news organisations face. Journalism is under attack across the world from those who seek to suppress media freedom.

“We will not be cowed by threats. Our journalists will continue to provide the independent, uncensored news the people of Iran deserve.

“Today’s verdict sends a clear message that the UK remains a bastion of free speech where threats against journalists will not be tolerated.

“We are grateful to the Metropolitan Police for all they do to ensure our safety.”

Commenting on the case, Met Commander Dominic Murphy said counter-terrorism police were “very alive” to the threat posed by Iran to potential targets on British soil.

The head of the Met’s SO15 Counter-terrorism Command said: “For a considerable amount of time, we’ve been worried about threats projected into the UK from Iran.

“At this time, we don’t know why Dovtaev was conducting this activity except to say that we believe very strongly that it was for terrorism.

“We don’t know who did it but we have always been concerned about threats projected into the UK, and in this case particularly against Persian language media.

“I’m pleased to say the company are still broadcasting from London, but just in a different location now.”

Fifteen plots “generated from Iran” against individuals or organisations in the UK have been disrupted and police remained alive to the threat from the hostile state, he said.

Jurors had heard how Iran International had been highly critical of the Iranian government for years and publicly accused it of human rights violations.

Last September, it reported on the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been detained for allegedly violating headscarf rules.

Amid the subsequent protests in Iran, the country’s minister of intelligence designated the television channel a “terrorist organisation”.

In November, state-owned Iranian media described Iran International as being on a “terror blacklist”.

It stated: “Those operating the TV channel have been declared as ‘wanted’ by the Ministry (of Intelligence).”

Jurors were told of close political ties between Iran, Russia and Chechnya, where the defendant was born.

Since 2019, Iran has been in a strategic alliance with Russia.

Chechnya was described as a “subject” of the Russian Federation and had deployed forces to fight in Ukraine last year, jurors heard.

On February 11, IT worker and married father-of-three Dovtaev boarded a plane from Vienna to Gatwick.

From the airport, he took a taxi directly to the headquarters of Iran International and carried out “hostile reconnaissance” for an unidentified individual or group, the court was told.

He sought to “identify and exploit” vulnerabilities in the security of the company’s premises in the Chiswick Business Park, west London, jurors heard.

When initially questioned, he told security guards he was meeting a friend.

He was arrested by police at a nearby Starbucks cafe after he was seen filming the Iran International building on his phone.

In a prepared statement to police, he denied being involved with any terrorist organisation and claimed he had taken a video “to show to my three children as there was a lake there”.

The court heard Dovtaev’s trip was the most recent in a series of similar visits by “others unknown” to identify chinks in security that could be exploited by those planning an attack.

Prosecutor Nicholas de la Poer KC said: “As a result of the Iranian authorities’ attitude towards Iran International, the organisation and its employees all became targets for violent reprisals.

“As such, the security at their place of work was of very real and practical interest to those who might wish to carry out such reprisals.

“The very fact that the defendant went to collect information shows that planning by others was already under way.”

Giving evidence, the defendant denied wrongdoing and claimed he had been “set up”.

He claimed not to know why he had been sent to the business park and said he felt tricked by his contact, whose identity he did not know.

Asked why he appeared to take an interest in the building and its surroundings, he said he “quite simply liked it” and was “in wonder at the architecture”.

Dovtaev said he had been sent to the UK to do something he “didn’t understand” and that he had “no reason” to help the Iranian government to attack its enemies in England.