00:00The victim was Puria Zerati, a journalist living in the United Kingdom.
00:06On the 29th of March, 2024, he was attacked outside his home in Wimbledon.
00:14The attack was not spontaneous.
00:17It followed extensive reconnaissance over a period of weeks.
00:22And in the case of George Stanner, involvement in earlier activity directed at the victim
00:28dating back to March, 2023.
00:32Stanner, who the judge said ought to have known that the targeted and serious attack was on behalf of Iran,
00:38was jailed for 12 years.
00:40Badea, who was involved in the conspiracy for less time, was handed eight years imprisonment.
00:46Mr Zerati was stabbed three times in the FI in what prosecutors described as a planned attack
00:53preceded by reconnaissance, and which was ordered by a third party acting on behalf of the Iranian state.
01:00You all travelled to Queensmere Road in Wimbledon, where you waited for several hours for Mr Zerati
01:07to emerge from his home.
01:10When he did so, Nandito Badea approached him from the front, while David Andrei approached
01:17from behind, the victim was effectively trapped beside his vehicle.
01:23During that encounter, he sustained three stab wounds to the upper right thigh from a knife
01:30with a 20-centimetre blade.
01:32Following the attack, the two men ran back to the waiting vehicle driven by Stanner.
01:37The group then undertook an orchestrated escape.
01:43Clothing and other items were discarded.
01:46The vehicle was abandoned.
01:48A taxi was taken to Heathrow Airport.
01:52The participants flew to Switzerland and then travelled onwards to Romania.
01:58The victims survived.
02:01Despite their location at the top of the leg, by good fortune,
02:05the wounds did not cause catastrophic vascular injury.
02:11Would you stand up, please, both of you?
02:17George Stanner, you were in England only to make money, and you would do anything for it.
02:22There can be no doubt at all that this was a targeted, organised and funded act of serious violence
02:29carried out for reward upon a journalist living peacefully in the United Kingdom
02:34who had become a prominent critic of the Iranian regime.
02:40Oppressive regimes tend to do all they can to suppress opposition.
02:45They cannot abide the scrutiny that fearless journalists provide.
02:52Over all, the features I have identified place this stabbing among the most serious examples of Section 18 offending.
02:596.
02:597.
03:008.
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