British authorities have charged two Iranian nationals over an alleged plot to carry out a terrorist attack against the Jewish community in northern England on the eve of Yom Kippur, police and prosecutors said Friday.
The two men were arrested just hours before the start of the Jewish Day of Atonement, one year after a deadly attack at Manchester’s Heaton Park synagogue in which two worshippers were killed.
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Rabbi Daniel Walker, head of Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester, after the Yom Kippur attack
(Photo: Paul Currie / AFP)
Police and the Crown Prosecution Service said Rahman Salehi, 35, and Salam Ahmadian, 36, had been charged with offenses related to preparing an act of terrorism or assisting another person in carrying out one.
Counterterrorism detectives said the two men were suspected of being in contact with a third party overseas in connection with the alleged plot. Investigators believe that person may be in Iran.
Vicki Evans, Britain’s senior national coordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, described the charges and allegations as “extremely serious.”
Police announced last week that two men had been arrested on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack and said officers believed they had disrupted a plot targeting the Jewish community in the Greater Manchester area.
Scene of last year’s synagogue attack in Manchester
(Photo: Paul Currie / AFP)
Frank Ferguson, head of the Crown Prosecution Service’s Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said prosecutors had authorized charges following “a fast-moving counterterrorism investigation in Greater Manchester throughout September” involving an alleged threat to the Jewish community.
“Our prosecutors have worked to establish that there is sufficient evidence to bring this case before the court,” Ferguson said, stressing that criminal proceedings were ongoing and that the defendants were entitled to a fair trial.
“We understand this case may cause concern, particularly given the arrests took place on the eve of Yom Kippur,” he added. “We want to reassure the Jewish community that, working alongside the police, their safety and the safety of the wider public remain our highest priority.”