Iranian journalist posts defiant update from hospital bed after knife attack outside London home

LONDON: A prominent Iranian journalist who was stabbed as he left his London home on Friday night posted a defiant picture from his hospital bed on Saturday as he recovers from the attack.

Pouria Zeraati remained in a stable condition after being attacked with a knife and sustaining wounds in his leg during the incident, which took place in Wimbledon in south London.

He posted a picture of himself to social media from his hospital bed, flashing the peace sign.

London’s Metropolitan Police Counter Terror Command confirmed on Friday it was leading an investigation into the incident.

Adam Baillie, a spokesman for Iran International, said on Saturday that the incident had been “hugely frightening,” but confirmed that Zeraati was “doing very well.”

In a statement released on Friday seen by Arab News, Dominic Murphy, chief of of the CTC, said: “I must stress that, at this early stage of our investigation, we do not know the reason this victim was attacked and there could be a number of explanations for this.”

He added: “While we continue to assess the circumstances of this incident, detectives are following a number of lines of inquiry and our priority at this time is to try to identify whoever was behind this attack and to arrest them.

“I appreciate the wider concern this incident may cause, particularly among others in similar lines of work, and those from Iranian communities.

“We continue to work closely with the victim’s organization and as a precaution we’ll have additional patrols in the Wimbledon area as well as other sites around London to provide reassurance over the coming days to those affected and concerned.”

The regime in Tehran had previously plotted to kill two Iran International TV anchors, Sima Sabet and Fardad Farahzad, in November 2022.

However, Iran’s envoy in the UK, Mehdi Hosseini Matin, denied “any link” to Friday’s incident.