LONDON, Sept 26, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Three Iranian nationals, who arrived in the UK as irregular migrants, on Friday denied spying in Britain on behalf of Iran's intelligence services.

Mostafa Sepahvand, 39, Farhad Javadi Manesh, 44, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 55, appeared at London's Old Bailey court charged under the powerful National Security Act.

Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones said the charges were serious and related to spying on journalists and organisations "known to be considered by the Iranian regime as hostile".

"These are extremely serious charges," said Dominic Murphy, head of the Met's Counter-Terrorism command, when the men first appeared in court in May, adding that it had been a "very complex and fast-moving investigation".

All three were charged with "engaging in conduct likely to assist a foreign intelligence service between 14 August 2024 and 16 February 2025," the police said.

Sepahvand was also charged with "surveillance, reconnaissance and open-source research... intending to commit acts, namely serious violence against a person in the United Kingdom".

Manesh and Noori were also charged with "surveillance and reconnaissance with the intention that acts, namely serious violence against a person in the United Kingdom, would be committed by others."

The BBC reported in May that the men allegedly targeted UK-based journalists working for the Farsi-language Iran International television news network, an independent media organisation based in London that Iran has labelled a terror organisation.

The Home Office said the suspects were all irregular migrants having arrived in the UK by small boat or other means, such as hidden in a vehicle, between 2016 and 2022.

The three defendants, who appeared via videolink from Belmarsh prison, confirmed their identities speaking through a Farsi interpreter before entering not guilty pleas in English.

A trial has been set for October 2026, with an interim hearing in March.

Iran became in March the first country to be placed on the UK's enhanced tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme, which aims to boost the UK's national security against covert foreign influences.

Under the scheme, all people working inside the UK for Iran, its intelligence services or the Revolutionary Guard have to register or face jail.