Two Iranian men charged with terrorism offenses over an alleged bomb plot to attack the Jewish community in Manchester, England, appeared in a British court on Saturday.
The suspects – Salam Ahmadyan, 36, and Rahman Salehi, 34 – were arrested on September 20, the eve of the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur and almost exactly a year after a terrorist attack at a Manchester synagogue killed two worshipers.
In court on Saturday, prosecutor Mark Luckett said the two men were in contact with an Iranian national, most likely operating from Iran.
This third party “allegedly directed and coordinated the planned attack and provided instructions on how to assemble a homemade explosive device,” Luckett said, according to British news agency PA Media.
Prosecutors accused the two men of planning and acquiring the materials needed to make a chlorine bomb as well as using the Internet to identify and search for potential targets.
The two men allegedly “conducted hostile reconnaissance within Manchester’s Jewish community, identifying potential targets such as the Jewish Museum and Heaton Park Synagogue,” Luckett added, referring to the same synagogue hit in last year’s deadly attack.
The suspects’ arrest follows a series of anti-Semitic attacks this year, including a stabbing in north London and assaults on synagogues and other communal buildings, which have left the country’s Jewish community in a heightened state of fear.
“We continue to see anti-Semitic sentiments emerging with increasing frequency,” Laurence Taylor, head of the counterterrorism police, said Friday in a statement marking one year after the Manchester synagogue attack.
Just days before the Iranian suspects were charged in the case, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham also claimed there were “strong indications” that Iran “played a role” in another incident in which six men were arrested and released on bail over an alleged plot to target a British air base used by US forces.
Police stressed that the foiled Manchester attack and the incident at RAF Fairford air base “are unconnected”, although the week “highlighted some of the wider threats projected onto the UK from Iran”.
Several senior Iranian officials, including Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi, have categorically denied their country’s involvement in the RAF Fairford incident.
Both defendants in the Manchester case spoke in court through interpreters, only to confirm their names, dates of birth and addresses, PA reported.
Both had arrived in the UK via small boats crossing the English Channel, the court heard, according to PA. These small boat crossings, a notoriously dangerous migration route, have become a political hot button in recent years. They led to tougher immigration policies from center-right Conservative and center-left Labor governments, and also contributed to the rise of the far-right populist Reform UK party.
Salehi, who was granted asylum in 2023, was granted the right to stay in the country until July 2028, while Ahmadyan has a pending asylum application, the court heard, according to the Palestinian Authority.
Both suspects will be taken into custody and will then appear in court for a hearing on October 23.
Gn world
