British prosecutors charge two people after RAF Fairford incident | News

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Mohmed Abdulkarim, dual British-Iranian national, and British citizen Nouman Essghir, charged under the national security law.

British prosecutors say they have charged two men with breaches of the national security law following a September incident at RAF Fairford, an air base in England used by the United States.

Dual British-Iranian national Mohmed Abdulkarim and British citizen Nouman Essghir, both aged 24, were charged under the national security law, the prosecution said. They are due in court later Tuesday.

Abdulkarim is accused of assisting Iranian intelligence services and Essghir is accused of entering a prohibited place with a purpose detrimental to the United Kingdom.

The air base in Gloucestershire, in the southwest of England, was used this year by American bombers to carry out strikes against Iran.

Essghir was arrested outside the base on September 27, when armed police and army bomb disposal experts invaded the rural area. Dozens of residents were evacuated from their homes as police and army bomb squad searched for explosives.

Abdulkarim was arrested last week. Six other men have been arrested and released on bail as investigations continue.

Shortly after the incident at the base, American B-1 bombers were withdrawn from the site.

Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, head of the UK’s counter-terrorism police, said police believed “the country Abdulkarim was helping was Iran.”

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said last week that the activity at RAF Fairford was likely to have been coordinated in Iran, something the Iranian ambassador to the UK denied.

Last year, the UK said there had been 20 credible threats to kill or kidnap people based in the UK, backed by Iran.

In July, Britain used new powers to ban support for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and a related group, Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (HAYI), which had claimed responsibility for seven attacks earlier this year in locations linked to the Jewish and Israeli communities and Persian-language media.