Romanian men jailed for Iran-linked stabbing of London journalist
Two Romanian men were sentenced on Friday to 8 and 12 years in prison for the 2024 stabbing of Pouria Zeraati, a London-based Iranian journalist, in an attack the judge said was carried out for and for the benefit of the Iranian state.
The attack
On 29 March 2024, Pouria Zeraati, a presenter at the Persian-language channel Iran International, was stabbed three times in the leg as he walked to his car near his home in Wimbledon, southwest London. Nandito Badea, a former youth player at Romanian club Astra Giurgiu who had featured in three first-team games in 2022, and David Andrei ambushed Zeraati. Andrei restrained him while Badea inflicted the wounds. A getaway car driven by George Stana, 25, was captured on CCTV during what prosecutor Duncan Atkinson described as extensive reconnaissance before the attack.
Court ruling and sentences
A jury at London’s Woolwich Crown Court convicted Badea, 21, and Stana in June 2026 on charges of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. On 3 July 2026, Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb sentenced Badea to 8 years’ imprisonment and Stana to 12 years, declaring that the evidence ‘overwhelmingly points’ to an operation mounted for a foreign power.
I am sure that this was an attack carried out for and for the benefit of a foreign power.
Iran’s role denied by Tehran
Prosecutors alleged the pair acted as proxies for the Iranian government. Atkinson told the court that Iran has increasingly relied on criminal intermediaries to conduct violence abroad since 2005, and that Zeraati was an obvious target after posters bearing his face and the words ‘Wanted: Dead or Alive’ appeared in Tehran in November 2022. Iran International, a Saudi-funded channel fiercely critical of Iran’s theocratic government, has been designated a terrorist organisation by Tehran. Iran’s senior diplomat in the UK denied the regime’s involvement.
It was not a robbery, nor a fight that got out of control, but intentional, planned violence designed to achieve the intended goal, namely serious injury to the target.
Journalist in exile
Zeraati recovered from his wounds and returned to work, but told the court in a victim impact statement that the attack had left him ‘scared and anxious’ and forced him to relocate abroad. The channel had already moved its studios to Washington, D.C., in 2023 following escalating state-backed threats before resuming operations from a new London location.
The incident left me scared and anxious, and I have had to relocate abroad for fear of any reprisals.
Timeline of events
- Pouria Zeraati stabbed three times in the leg near his home in Wimbledon, London.
- Nandito Badea and George Stana arrested in Romania and extradited to the UK.
- Badea and Stana convicted of wounding with intent at Woolwich Crown Court.
- Badea sentenced to 8 years, Stana to 12 years in prison at London’s Central Criminal Court.
