Former senior members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its affiliated Basij paramilitary force are living in the UK, a Channel 4 News investigation has found — just as the government designates the IRGC a threat to national security and bans support for the group.
Among them is Akbar Azimi-Rad, 42, a former Basij commander who now runs a butcher shop in northern England. He arrived in the UK in 2007, but his asylum claim was rejected because of his past role. Appeals judges upheld the decision, finding he was complicit in crimes against humanity. Yet he remains in the country on temporary visas because he could face persecution if returned to Iran.
“Ex-IRGC members live in UK as government bans support for the group with 14-year prison sentences.”
Others include a female former deputy governor of an Iranian prison whom UK courts found made “a substantial contribution” to torture, and a male IRGC guard “responsible for guarding prisoners, kept naked in small dark cells and tortured”.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced on Monday that the IRGC would be designated a threat to national security under new government powers. In a written statement to Parliament, she set out that expressing a positive opinion of the group, assisting them, or otherwise showing support will now be an offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Two other groups are also being proscribed: the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right (IMCR) and the volunteer corps of Russia's GRU military intelligence agency. New powers will be given to police and intelligence agencies to tackle espionage, foreign interference, sabotage and physical attacks from these groups.
The prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, said: “We will never let Britain be a playground for states who want to spread fear, division and violence on our streets. … These new powers will make it easier to prosecute and lock up anyone carrying out their dirty work here in Britain.”
Mahmood added: “Iran and Russia are using proxies and thugs to do their dirty work on our shores. I have rapidly designated three groups so those working for them will be tracked down and put behind bars.”
If approved by Parliament later this week, acts of sabotage including arson on behalf of these groups could carry life imprisonment. Prosecutors will no longer need to establish a foreign power connection in every case.
MI5 identified at least 20 potentially lethal Iranian-backed plots against people in the UK in the last year, and the IRGC is central to the Iranian state's operations, particularly targeting the Jewish community and Iranian dissidents. In March, the IMCR publicly claimed responsibility for an antisemitic arson attack on four Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green.
The IRGC was established after the 1979 revolution to defend Iran's Islamic system, but it has since become a powerful arm of the state with an estimated 190,000 active personnel and has been listed as a terror group by Australia and Canada.
There is no suggestion that any of the former IRGC members now living in the UK still support the regime or are responsible for any wrongdoing in Britain. But the government's announcement has thrown a spotlight on those who have already made their home here — and the contradiction their presence presents.
