Iran turns to Hells Angels and other criminal gangs to tackle critics

In the months before his attackers tracked him down, the exiled Iranian journalist was shuttled in and out of safe houses by London’s Metropolitan Police, given a secret way to alert rescue services and had surveillance equipment installed in his home.

British authorities have done even more to protect Iran International, the London-based satellite news channel that broadcasts journalist Pouria Zeraati’s weekly program and has built an audience of millions in Iran despite being banned by the Islamic Republic.

Police sent a team of undercover agents to protect the station’s employees. Police also arrested a suspect who was guarding the station’s entrances. Police also placed armored vehicles outside the station’s headquarters and convinced the station to temporarily relocate to Washington for seven months last year.

None of these measures succeeded in protecting Zeraati from the plot Iran has been accused of this year. On March 29, he was stabbed four times and left bleeding on the pavement outside his home in the London suburb of Wimbledon by assailants who were not from Iran and had no discernible connection to the security services, British investigators said.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/09/12/iran-criminal-gangs-target-dissidents/