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UK Convicts Austrian National Over ‘Terror Plot’ Against Iran International

A handout image released by the Metropolitan Police Service shows the custody photograph of Austrian national Magomed-Husejn Dovtaev (AFP)
A handout image released by the Metropolitan Police Service shows the custody photograph of Austrian national Magomed-Husejn Dovtaev (AFP)
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UK Convicts Austrian National Over ‘Terror Plot’ Against Iran International

A handout image released by the Metropolitan Police Service shows the custody photograph of Austrian national Magomed-Husejn Dovtaev (AFP)
A handout image released by the Metropolitan Police Service shows the custody photograph of Austrian national Magomed-Husejn Dovtaev (AFP)

A British court has sentenced an Austrian born in Chechnya to three and a half years in prison, convicting him of carrying out "hostile reconnaissance" against a London-based Iranian television channel.

Last Wednesday, a jury in London convicted Magomed-Husejn Dovtaev following a brief trial.

Dovtaev, 31, pleaded not guilty to possession of records containing information likely to be helpful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

He was detained by counterterrorism officers in west London last Feb. 11.

The Public Prosecution said that Dovtaev went to London to gather "hostile information" in connection with a building housing the Persian-language channel Iran International, whose journalists report on human rights violations believed to be being committed in Iran.

Paul Kelleher, Dovtayev's defense attorney, said there was every possibility his client was a "useful idiot" and that claims Iran would contemplate a terrorist attack on a news organization in England were "far-fetched."

But Judge Richard Marks expressed his "satisfaction with the criminal standards of evidence that an attack of some sort on Iran International was the plan of those behind this."

Iran refuted the British media's false allegations about harming presenters and broadcasters.

Iranian Chargé d'Affaires in London Mehdi Hosseini Mateen denied the British media's accusations of an "alleged Iranian plot" to assassinate two international television broadcasters living in London.

Mehr News Agency reported on Friday that Mateen rejected the claims of ITV News, saying they were baseless and similar to a Hollywood movie.

ITV News previously published a report claiming that the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) had contacted a human trafficker in Oct. 2022, offering $200,000 to assassinate two international broadcasters in London.

The Iranian Chargé d'Affaires said that the report claimed that the person hired was a double agent working with a Western intelligence organization and uncovered the plot.

Mateen added that regardless of the undeniable violent behaviors of the alleged London-based TV network against Iranian national security, Tehran is not linked to those who made these allegations.

The Iranian government classified Iran International as a terrorist organization based on its coverage of the protests that broke out in the country following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

Amini died in September 2022, three days after the morality police in Tehran arrested her. Her death sparked widespread protests against political and religious leaders in Iran.

The suppression of these protests led to the deaths of hundreds, and the authorities arrested thousands of people.

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World

Iran Hangs 18-Year-Old Over Protests in Latest Wartime Execution, Say Activists

Iranians walk at a park on Nature Day, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran, April 2, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
Iranians walk at a park on Nature Day, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran, April 2, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
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Iran Hangs 18-Year-Old Over Protests in Latest Wartime Execution, Say Activists

Iranians walk at a park on Nature Day, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran, April 2, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
Iranians walk at a park on Nature Day, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran, April 2, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

Iranian authorities Thursday executed a teenager convicted over January protests after a fast-track trial rights groups labelled as "grossly unfair", as the country ramps up executions during the war with the US and Israel.

Amir Hossein Hatami, 18, was sentenced to death in February along with six others by a Tehran revolutionary court and was hanged at dawn in the notorious Ghezel Hesar prison outside the capital, according to Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights.

The Iranian judiciary's Mizan Online website said he acted "against national security" on behalf of Israel and the United States by breaking into "a military center and destroying it in order to seize the weapons stored there" during the protests.

But Amnesty International said it was "outraged by the arbitrary execution of the teenage protester", adding the trial was "grossly unfair" and that he had been sentenced to death less than a month after his arrest.

Hatami is the fourth man to be executed over protests that broke out in Iran in late December against the rising cost of living before evolving into nationwide anti-government demonstrations. The protests peaked on January 8 and 9 and were met with a crackdown that activists say left thousands dead.

On March 19, authorities executed three men convicted of killing police in the protests, including 19-year-old Saleh Mohammadi, a wrestler who took part in international competitions.

This week, authorities have hanged four men convicted on charges of rebellion for membership in the banned People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) after their sentences were upheld by the supreme court.

Hatami "was subjected to torture and sentenced based on forced confessions in a grossly unfair trial before the revolutionary Court," said IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.

"In the past two weeks alone, three protesters and four political prisoners have been executed, and hundreds more remain at imminent risk," he added. IHR said that just 84 days had elapsed between his arrest and execution.

- 'Tool of repression' -

The seven were accused of setting fire to a base belonging to the Basij militia -- a volunteer force of the Revolutionary Guards -- in Tehran during the protests.

But defense lawyers accused plainclothes forces of trapping protesters inside a building, locking the doors, and themselves starting the fire.

Amnesty International said that the execution showed the judiciary is "a tool of repression sending individuals to the gallows to spread fear and exacting revenge on those demanding fundamental political change".

IHR said the seven men had been convicted in the fast track-trial -- just a month after their arrest -- by the court presided over by the notorious judge Abolqasem Salavati.

Salavati was sanctioned in 2019 by the United States, which said he is known as the "Judge of Death" for his frequent death sentences.

The executions came amid Iran's war with Israel and the United States which erupted on February 28 with strikes that killed the Islamic republic's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.

"Hundreds more now face imminent executions in the coming days and weeks," warned Amiry-Moghaddam.

World

Austria Denies US Use of Airspace for Iran Military Operations

18 March 2026, ---: A US Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet with the Tomcatters of Strike Fighter Squadron 31 launches from the flight deck of the Ford-class aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford in support of Operation Epic Fury. (Navy Handout/US Navy/Planet Pix via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa)
18 March 2026, ---: A US Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet with the Tomcatters of Strike Fighter Squadron 31 launches from the flight deck of the Ford-class aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford in support of Operation Epic Fury. (Navy Handout/US Navy/Planet Pix via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa)
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Austria Denies US Use of Airspace for Iran Military Operations

18 March 2026, ---: A US Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet with the Tomcatters of Strike Fighter Squadron 31 launches from the flight deck of the Ford-class aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford in support of Operation Epic Fury. (Navy Handout/US Navy/Planet Pix via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa)
18 March 2026, ---: A US Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet with the Tomcatters of Strike Fighter Squadron 31 launches from the flight deck of the Ford-class aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford in support of Operation Epic Fury. (Navy Handout/US Navy/Planet Pix via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa)

Austria has denied the United States use of its airspace for military operations against Iran due to Austria's neutrality law, the country's defense ‌ministry said ‌on Thursday.

A spokesperson ‌for ⁠the ministry confirmed ⁠a report from Austrian news agency APA that the US had made "several" flyover requests to ⁠Austria, without specifying ‌how ‌many.

All US flyover requests ‌of a military ‌nature relating to the conflict in Iran had been rejected, the spokesperson ‌said.

Austria applies the same principle to ⁠other ⁠countries that are engaged in military conflict, the spokesperson added.

Individual cases were reviewed in consultation with the Austrian foreign ministry, the APA report noted.

World

Iran Fires on Israel as Trump Claims Threat from Tehran Nearly Eliminated

Iranian women clad in black chadors wave national flags and hold posters of Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei (C) and of his late father, former Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei (R), during the annual Nature Day festival in Tehran, Iran, 02 April 2026. (EPA)
Iranian women clad in black chadors wave national flags and hold posters of Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei (C) and of his late father, former Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei (R), during the annual Nature Day festival in Tehran, Iran, 02 April 2026. (EPA)
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Iran Fires on Israel as Trump Claims Threat from Tehran Nearly Eliminated

Iranian women clad in black chadors wave national flags and hold posters of Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei (C) and of his late father, former Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei (R), during the annual Nature Day festival in Tehran, Iran, 02 April 2026. (EPA)
Iranian women clad in black chadors wave national flags and hold posters of Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei (C) and of his late father, former Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei (R), during the annual Nature Day festival in Tehran, Iran, 02 April 2026. (EPA)

Iran fired more missiles at Israel and Gulf Arab states Thursday, demonstrating Tehran’s continued ability to strike its neighbors even as US President Donald Trump claimed the threat from the country was nearly eliminated.

Iran’s attacks on Gulf states along with its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz have disrupted the world’s energy supplies with effects far beyond the Middle East. That has proved to be Iran’s greatest strategic advantage in the war. Britain held a call with nearly three dozen countries about how to reopen the strait once the fighting is over.

Trump has insisted the strait can be taken by force — but said it is not up to the US to do that. In an address to the American people Wednesday night, he encouraged countries that depend on oil from Hormuz to “build some delayed courage” and go “take it.”

Before the US and Israel started the war on Feb. 28 with strikes on Iran, the waterway was open to traffic and 20% of all traded oil passed through it.

Iran continues to strike Israel

Iran responded defiantly to Trump’s speech, in which the American president claimed US military action had been so decisive that “one of the most powerful countries” is “really no longer a threat.”

A spokesman for Iran’s military, Lt. Col. Ebrahim Zolfaghari, insisted Thursday that Tehran maintains hidden stockpiles of arms, munitions and production facilities. He said facilities targeted so far by US strikes are “insignificant.”

Just before Trump began his address — in which he said US “core strategic objectives are nearing completion” — explosions were heard in Dubai as air defenses worked to intercept an Iranian missile barrage.

Less than a half-hour after the president was done, Israel said its military was also working to intercept incoming missiles. Sirens sounded in Bahrain immediately after the speech.

Attacks continued across Iran on Thursday, with strikes reported in multiple cities.

Even amid the conflict, families went to a park in Tehran to play games and grill food to mark the last day of Iranian New Year, or Nowruz.

In Lebanon — home to Iran-backed Hezbollah who is fighting Israel, which has launched a ground invasion — an Israeli strike killed four people in the south, the Health Ministry said.

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran during the war, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel. More than two dozen people have died in Gulf states and the occupied West Bank, while 13 US service members have been killed.

More than 1,300 people have been killed and more than 1 million displaced in Lebanon. Ten Israeli soldiers have also died there.

Nearly three dozen nations talk about securing the Strait of Hormuz

Iranian attacks on about two dozen commercial ships, and the threat of more, have halted nearly all traffic in the waterway that connects the Gulf to the open ocean.

Since March 1, traffic through the strait has dropped 94% over the same period last year, according to the Lloyds List Intelligence shipping data firm. Two ships are confirmed to have paid a fee, the firm said, while others were allowed through based on agreements with their home governments.

Saudi Arabia piped about 1 billion barrels of oil away from the Strait of Hormuz in March, according to maritime data firm Kpler, while Iraq said Thursday that it had started to truck oil across Syria to avoid the strait.

The 35 countries that spoke Thursday, including all G7 countries except the US, as well as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, signed a declaration last month demanding Iran stop blocking the strait.

Thursday’s talks were focused on political and diplomatic measures, but British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said military planners from an unspecified number of countries will also plot ways to ensure security once fighting ends, including potential mine-clearing work and “reassurance” for commercial shipping.

No country appears willing to try to open the strait by force while the war is raging. French President Emmanuel Macron, while on a visit to South Korea, called a military operation to secure the waterway “unrealistic.”

But there is a concern that Iran might limit traffic through the waterway even after US and Israeli attacks cease.

The idea of an international effort has echoes of the “coalition of the willing,” led by the UK and France, that was assembled to underpin Ukraine’s security in the event of a ceasefire in that war. The coalition is, in part, an attempt to demonstrate to Washington that Europe is doing more for its own security in the face of frequent criticism from Trump.

Oil prices rise again

The conflict is driving up prices for oil and natural gas, roiling stock markets, pushing up the cost of gasoline and threatening to make a range of goods, including food, more expensive.

On Thursday, Brent crude, the international standard, rose again and was around $108, up about 50% from Feb. 28.

Though the oil and gas that typically transits the strait is primarily sold to Asian nations, Japan and South Korea were the only two countries from the region joining Thursday's call about the strait. The supply of jet fuel has also been interrupted, with consequences for travel worldwide.