Two Iranians charged in UK over preparing terrorist attacks — PBS NewsHour

In the United Kingdom, two Iranians have been charged with preparing terrorist acts after alleged surveillance near the Heaton Park Congregation synagogue in Manchester. As PBS NewsHour reports, 36-year-old Salam Ahmadian and 34-year-old Rahman Salehi were detained last month, and charges were brought on Friday, October 2.

The prosecution’s version

Prosecutor Mark Luckett told the court that the men had explored the possibility of an attack on the Heaton Park Congregation synagogue and the Jewish Museum in the Cheetham Hill area near Manchester. According to him, the defendants acted on the instructions of a third person, who is believed to be in Iran, coordinated the plan and provided instructions for making an improvised chlorine bomb.

Luckett also said that both men had been seen conducting what he described as hostile reconnaissance in Manchester’s Jewish community. During a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, Ahmadian and Salehi did not enter pleas.

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Next hearing

Judge Nina Tempia ordered that both men remain in custody until a hearing on October 23 at London’s Central Criminal Court. Senior national counterterrorism policing coordinator Vicki Evans said law enforcement officials consider the alleged plan an isolated incident and see no current threat to the public.

Evans also said that the case is unrelated to the suspected preparation of a terrorist attack at the US-operated RAF Fairford air base. The Heaton Park Congregation synagogue was the site of a deadly attack on October 2, 2025: an attacker drove a car into the gates and then attacked people with a knife. Two members of the community were killed and three others sustained serious injuries.