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In other news, two Romanian men were handed lengthy jail sentences by a British court on Friday for their part in a “targeted” knife attack, which left a prominent exiled Iranian journalist hospitalized.

Pouria Zeraati, a television anchor at the UK-based Iran International, was stabbed three times in his thigh outside his home in Wimbledon, southwest London in March 2024.

The two men — Nandito Badea, 21, and George Stana, 25 — were convicted of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, PA Media reported. Badea was sentenced to eight years imprisonment and Stana 12 years.

Overwhelming evidence pointed to this attack being carried out on behalf of the Iranian regime, said the trial’s presiding judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, according to PA.

“I am sure that this was an attack carried out for and for the benefit of a foreign power,” she said. “Pouria Zeraati was a well known critic of the regime and he had previously been subjected to threats, as had members of his family.”

Prosecutors argued that the attack had been planned for a year beforehand, during which time Bedea, and another man David Andrei, who remains in Romania and wasn’t on trial, visited the property eight times across five different dates.

The attack forced Zeraati to move abroad “for fear of any reprisals” and left him “scared and anxious,” he said in a victim impact statement.

Later on Friday, the UK’s Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said the sentencing “sends a clear message to the Iranian regime and those who do its bidding.”

“For anyone to act on behalf of Iran and to plan and carry out an attack on a journalist, on British soil, is deplorable,” she added.