Two Iranian men charged with plotting terror attack against Manchester Jews appear in court

Two Iranian men who were charged with plotting a terror attack on the Jewish community in Manchester, northwestern England, appear in a London court.

Salam Ahmadyan, 36, and Rahman Salehi, 34, were charged on Friday after being arrested in September, with police alleging the men were “in contact with an overseas third party who may be in Iran in relation to the plot.”

Their arrests come nearly a year after a deadly knife and gun attack on the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Manchester where worshippers had gathered for Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

Prosecutor Mark Luckett tells the court the two men were plotting to use a “homemade explosive device” and that their potential targets included the Heaton Park synagogue targeted last year and the Jewish Museum in Manchester.

“The defendants were observed carrying out, what the prosecution say, is a hostile reconnaissance within Manchester’s Jewish community,” Luckett tells Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

The men are remanded into custody and are set to next appear at the Old Bailey criminal court in London for a hearing on October 23.

The court was told both men arrived in the UK by crossing the Channel from France on small boats, a route used by thousands of asylum seekers every year that has fueled anti-immigration sentiment in Britain.

Salehi was granted asylum in 2023 after arriving in 2020, while Ahmadyan arrived in 2023 and has a pending asylum claim, the court hears.

The past year has seen a spate of attacks in the British capital targeting Jewish or Israel-linked locations, with an Iran-linked group claiming some of the attacks, including the arson of Jewish charity ambulances in London.