By CRAIG McDONALD

Dissidents intimidated and menaced – by agents of brutal regime they thought they had escaped

ANETWORK of Iranian terrorists is secretly operating in Scotland – issuing threats and intimidation to dissidents of the Middle Eastern country living here. At least 100 agents of the feared Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) are believed to be living and operating in Scotland and enforcing the hardline doctrine of their country’s leaders. Police Scotland has confirmed that officers are aware of a ‘potential threat’, with safety plans in place to protect possible targets among Scotland’s 5,000-strong Iranian community.

The revelation follows escalating tensions between Iran and the West – and an astonishing intervention in November from the head of MI5, who spoke openly of plots being waged on UK soil by Iranian agents.

Iranians living in Scotland have told The Scottish Mail on Sunday of threats which have been issued to them via social media, mobile phone – and in person.

It comes as the UK Government mulls possible moves to ban the IRGC under terror laws. The vast organisation, with an estimated 125,000 personnel, is part of the Iranian Armed Forces and is known for its ruthless enforcement tactics, including amputations and executions.

Hamid Bahrami, 35, spent weeks locked up in solitary confinement in his homeland following his political protests there, before fleeing and moving to Scotland – where he continues to protest against the Iranian regime.

He told this newspaper: ‘I have now received threats here online and, to my great shock, on my personal mobile phone. I have only ever given the number to a few close family and friends. The voice said to me, in Persian, “Take care of yourself. You are playing with fire”.

‘On another occasion, they sent a note of my address to me and said, “Come out and you will see us”. I know they are trying to scare me.

‘I have also been filmed in the street and, when I approached the person, they told me, in Farsi, to take care of my life. I would be totally confident that there are at least 100 agents of IRGC here in Scotland. They walk among us.

‘They will have ordinary jobs, maybe as drivers or working in restaurants, and their job is to monitor and report on people living here.

‘Some dissidents have also had family members threatened back in Iran. We have heard of relatives being pulled in and told to tell family in Scotland to end their activities.

‘I have been very welcomed here, and this country has given me refuge, and I consider it my duty to tell people here what is happening.

‘I am scared but we see terrible things happening to people, some of whom have lost their lives, so I think there is no excuse for me to be silent. We know of the threats facing people who are protesting.’

In a further alarming testimony, another man who has protested in Scotland against the Iranian regime said he had subsequently been threatened with a handgun in a Glasgow restaurant.

The man, in his thirties, who did not wish to be named, said: ‘Two men approached me when I was in a takeaway. They came down and sat beside me and began talking to me.

‘One pulled back his jacket and I could see a gun. They asked me to end my activities. It was extremely frightening.’

Last year, it emerged that an Iranian wrestler who moved here in 2021 and won gold for Scotland has been given police protection after allegedly receiving threats from her government. Melika Balali, 22, protested against the forced wearing of the hijab on the winner’s podium of the British Wrestling Championships last year.

She said that, since speaking out about women’s rights, she has received threats from the Iranian government on social media.

She said: ‘They’ve tried to find where I’m living and who I’m practising with. But thanks to police in Scotland, I live safely, I train in a safe area and have all kinds of security.’

Another member of the Iranian community told us police in Scotland had proactively approached him to offer security advice if required.

Mr Bahrami is one of thousands of Iranians who have suffered at the hands of the regime. He says that after filming a protest in Iran, he was locked up in Dastgerd Prison in Isfahan in 2014. He was kept in solitary confinement in a brightly lit cell for 24 hours a day, deprived of food and with only water to drink.

He said: ‘I was held in solitary confinement for four weeks. It was a place of torture. Every day, I heard people being lashed and screaming from other parts of the prison.

‘The interrogators did not let me sleep for a week. I was interrogated for hours and they said I was arrested because of a relationship with the democratic opposition.

‘They also accused me of encouraging people to protest.

‘The place was so small, two metres by two metres. I didn’t know if it was day or night, but when birds started to sing I thought it was morning.’

He was released and fled Iran in 2015, being granted asylum in the UK three years later.

In addition to threats, he said he had been approached and filmed while protesting in the street, and at the AlMahdi Islamic centre in Glasgow’s South Side which was being used as a polling station for an Iranian election.

The UK and US have issued fresh sanctions against Iran in recent months, reflecting a deterioration in the West’s relations with Tehran.

Britain has so far stopped short of officially listing the IRGC as a terrorist group, although it is understood such a move is under consideration.

Last September, the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in Iran sparked huge protests there.

Officers reportedly beat Ms Amini, 22, after she wore the hijab ‘improperly’, though police deny this and say she suffered a heart attack.

As tension escalated late last year, UK counter-terrorism police handed letters to Iranians nationwide highlighting security advice.

In a highly unusual speech in November, MI5 director general Ken McCallum revealed his organisation had foiled ten plots against individuals in the UK in the past year alone.

Mr McCallum said: ‘Iran projects

They walk among us. Their job is to monitor and report on people here

threat to the UK directly, through its aggressive intelligence services. At its sharpest, this includes ambitions to kidnap or even kill British or UK-based individuals perceived as enemies of the regime. We have seen at least ten such potential threats since January alone.’

The IRGC was set up shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution to protect the Shia clerical ruling system. Its estimated 125,000 personnel have a military presence across army, navy and airforce units. The group’s textbooks outline specific punishments for its enemies, including hanging, other forms of execution, cross-amputation – cutting off a hand and the opposite foot – and exile.

The IRGC’s logo features an outstretched arm, the hand clutching a rifle, and an emblem which refers to a verse from the Koran which translates as: ‘Prepare against them whatever you are able of power, and of steeds of war, by which you may terrify the enemy of Allah and your enemy, and others besides them.’

The IRGC was designated a terrorist organisation in the US in 2019. Sources said expectations that the UK will follow suit have increased after the execution this month of Alireza Akbari, a BritishIranian national who was lured back to Iran by its security services three years ago.

Mr Akbari was hanged for being a spy for MI6, an accusation his family say is untrue. UK officials describe his death as murder.

Mr Akbari, 61, leaves behind a wife and two daughters in the UK.

The UK’s Security Minister, Tom Tugendhat, said: ‘The Iranian regime threatens other British citizens even in the UK, as the MI5 head reported recently. We will defend our security.’

Last year, Conservative MP Bob Blackman told the House of Commons

that the IRGC should be proscribed as a terrorist organisation. He raised concerns over Iran acting as a ‘hostile power’ with a ‘cell’ operating in Britain.

He said: ‘The fact of people being threatened in what is effectively a place where people have chosen to live in a secure environment, it’s quite clear we have a position of a hostile power.’

Police Scotland declined to comment specifically on Mr Bahrami’s case, stating: ‘When an online threat is identified or reported, police will engage with the recipient and, where necessary, provide appropriate safety advice and support.’

It added in relation to Ms Balali: ‘Police were made aware of online threats having been made in July 2022. Inquiries were carried out and a safety plan is in place.’

Under the Terrorism Act 2000, the Home Secretary may ‘proscribe’ an organisation if he or she ‘reasonably believes it is concerned in terrorism’.

A spokesman for the Met Police, speaking on behalf of Counter Terrorism Policing in the UK, said ‘We can confirm that officers from the Metropolitan Police continue to work in response to potential threats projected from Iran against a number of UK-based individuals.

‘Those affected have been given appropriate advice and support and a number of protective security measures have been put in place to mitigate against these threats.’

Last night a spokesman for the UK Government said it ‘keeps the list of proscribed organisations under review’, adding: ‘We do not comment on whether a specific organisation is or is not being considered for proscription.’