Man accused of carrying out attack on behalf of Iran says his friend did it

A Romanian builder accused of stabbing an Iranian opposition journalist in Wimbledon on behalf of Iran has said that it was a friend who wielded the knife.

Nandito Badea, 21, told a jury at Woolwich Crown Court that he believed his task had been to carry out surveillance on a man who was suspected of sleeping with another man's wife.

He and fellow Romanian George Stana are facing charges of wounding and wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm over the stabbing of journalist Pouria Zeraati in March 2024. They both deny the charges.

The prosecution say the stabbing had been organised on behalf of Iran.

Giving evidence on Friday, Badea said it was his friend David Andrei - who is not on trial - who stabbed the journalist and he had not expected it.

Badea told the jury that he started work as a professional footballer while still in his teens, playing for Romanian clubs Astra Giurgiu and CS Blejoi. But he then quit football because of the low pay, and started working in construction.

He described being approached after work in February 2024 by two men offering him construction work in the UK.

He said Constantin "Bebe" Matache and Catalin Dumitru promised him £3,000 a month, and on 22 February 2024 he flew into Stansted Airport on Ryanair.

He and a Romanian friend, Andrei, who travelled with him were put up in a hotel and provided with a car, but the construction work never materialised. The jury has been told that Andrei is not on trial because he could not be extradited from Romania.

After a few days, Badea told the jury, it was suggested that he and Andrei should carry out surveillance on a man "to see if Bebe's wife was visiting this gentleman's house." He said they had been told there was a suspicion that Bebe's wife was sleeping with the man.

The man lived in Wimbledon and Badea and Andrei went down to his home on Queensmere Road several times to carry out "reconnaissance," he said. He told the jury that at the time he did not know the man's name was Pouria Zeraati, nor that he was a prominent journalist opposed to the regime in Iran.

"I didn't believe that man would suffer any harm or anything", he told the jury.

On the day of the attack, 29 March 2024, he travelled to Wimbledon with Andrei and Stana, who was driving,

He said that on the way the other two men persuaded him to smoke some cannabis and take a "half pill." He said this made him feel unwell.

He said Andrei told him to "interact" with Zeraati. "I was instructed to go and ask for £3," he said.

He told the jury that as Zeraati walked up to his parked Tesla he asked him for some money, as instructed. At that point he saw his friend Andrei approaching.

"I was not expecting him to come from behind," he told the jury.

Then, he said "I saw David taking a knife out of his pocket. He stabbed him, and I ran away."

"I was afraid, I wasn't expecting something like that."

After speeding from the scene, the three men dumped their car and flew from Heathrow airport to Switzerland that evening.

He said that when they got to their hotel in Geneva he confronted Andrei.

"I asked him why did you do that? Do you intend to end up in prison? I said I would go and tell the authorities what had happened. He got angry. We had an argument and he slapped me. Once but very hard. He said 'you will never go to the police because I will take care of you.'"

From Geneva they flew back to Bucharest where they were met by Matache and Dumitru, he said. He said that he told them that he planned to tell the British Embassy what had happened, but they threatened him.

"They told me that my family and myself will suffer repercussions if I were to tell the authorities."

On Thursday, Stana, who is accused of being the getaway driver in the attack said he had thought the men had gone to Wimbledon to "slap" Zeraati and to steal a watch worth "tens of thousands of pounds".

"They didn't say who he was or what he was. They only said that they needed to slap him across the face because he had slept with somebody else's wife and we have to take the watch," Stana told the jury.

The prosecution has alleged that men had been paid on behalf of Iran to carry out a "planned attack" on Zeraati. Posters of Zeraati had been put up in the Iranian capital Tehran with the words "Wanted: dead or alive."

Badea is alleged to have wielded a knife in the attack, while Stana is said to have driven the blue Mazda used as a getaway car.

Earlier in the trial Zeraati told the jury that the attack on him had been "very frightening."

He said Badea had "started stabbing the back of my right thigh very quickly. All the time he was looking me in the eye".

The attack left the journalist in hospital with three stab wounds in his leg.

Badea and Stana have both denied charges of wounding and wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

The trial is expected to last one or two more weeks.