A Greek national traveled to Britain on behalf of a foreign intelligence service to conduct surveillance on a journalist critical of the Iranian regime, prosecutors alleged Friday when the man appeared in a London courtroom to face espionage charges.
Prosecutor Lee Ingham alleged that Ioannis Aidinidis, 46, visited addresses linked to the journalist while he was in Britain, photographing and filming homes and car license plates.
During the second visit he “installed a covert camera hidden in a sock” that was “able to send data to persons unknown abroad,” Ingham said during a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in central London.
Ingham said messages on Aidinidis’ phone indicated he was being funded by people abroad and that separate evidence suggested he carried out surveillance on a defense firm in Italy in between his trips to Britain.
Aidinidis is charged with assisting the intelligence service of a foreign country, believed to be Iran, when he targeted the journalist, who works for Iran International, a Persian-language media outlet critical of the country’s Islamic government. He is alleged to have travelled to the UK from April 16-21 and May 12-14.
