2 Iranian men charged over alleged bomb plot to target UK Jewish community appear in court

By Issy Ronald, CNN

(CNN) — Two Iranian men charged with terror offenses over an alleged bomb plot to attack the Jewish community in Manchester, England, appeared in a British court on Saturday.

The suspects – named as Salam Ahmadyan, 36, and Rahman Salehi, 34 – were arrested on September 20, on the eve of the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur and almost exactly a year after a terrorist attack at a Manchester synagogue killed two worshippers.

In court on Saturday, prosecutor Mark Luckett alleged that the two men were in contact with an Iranian national, most likely operating from within Iran.

That third party “is alleged to have directed and coordinated the planned attack and provided instructions on how to assemble a homemade explosive device,” Luckett said, according to UK news agency PA Media.

Prosecutors accused the two men of planning and acquiring the elements to make a chlorine bomb as well as using the internet to identify and research potential targets.

The two men allegedly “carried out a hostile reconnaissance within Manchester’s Jewish community, identifying attempted targets such as the Jewish Museum and Heaton Park Synagogue,” Luckett added, referencing the same synagogue hit in the deadly attack last year.

The suspects’ arrest comes after a string of antisemitic attacks this year, including a knife attack in north London and assaults on synagogues and other communal buildings, that have left the country’s Jewish community in a heightened state of fear.

“We continue to see antisemitic sentiment appearing with increasing frequency,” Laurence Taylor, the head of counter-terrorism policing, said Friday in a statement marking a year after the Manchester synagogue attack.

Just days before the Iranian suspects were charged in this case, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham also alleged there were “strong indications” Iran “played a part” in a separate incident which saw six men arrested and bailed over an alleged plot to target a UK airbase used by US forces.

Police emphasized that the foiled attack in Manchester and the incident at the airbase RAF Fairford “are not connected in any way,” even though the week “brought into sharp focus some of the wider threats being projected into the UK from Iran.”

Several high-level Iranian officials, including Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi, have categorically denied their country’s involvement in the incident at RAF Fairford.

The two 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 flashpoint in recent years. They have driven harder-line immigration policies from both the center-right Conservative and center-left Labour governments, as well as contributing to the rise of the populist hard-right party Reform UK.

Salehi, who was granted asylum in 2023, had been given the right to remain in the country until July 2028, while Ahmadyan has a pending asylum claim, the court heard, according to PA.

Both suspects will be remanded in custody and next appear in court for a hearing on October 23.

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CNN’s Hira Humayun contributed reporting.