A ex-professional footballer accused of stabbing an Iranian journalist in south-west London has blamed the knife attack on an accomplice.
Iran International journalist Pouria Zeraati was left bleeding in the street after he was attacked by proxies of the Iranian regime outside his home in Wimbledon on March 29 2024, Woolwich Crown Court heard.
Former footballer Nandito Badea, 21, said he believed he was only there to carry out surveillance on a man who was said to be having an affair with another man’s wife.
The former midfielder, who played for Romanian teams Astra and Blejoi, came to England to do construction work after his football career finished.
He told the jury: “I had no reason to believe that man would suffer any harm or anything.”
Badea and George Stana, 25, who are Romanian nationals, have both pleaded not guilty to wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and wounding.
Prosecutors allege they carried out “a planned attack preceded by reconnaissance, and which was ordered by a third party acting on behalf of the Iranian state”.
open image in galleryOn Friday Badea claimed a man called David Andrei, who is not a defendant in the trial, came up from behind and stabbed Mr Zeraati in the thigh.
Badea said he was “scared” of Andrei, who slapped and threatened him and his family when he later said he was going to tell the authorities what happened.
The ex-footballer said he followed Andrei’s instructions to ask Mr Zeraati for £3. He thought Andrei would join them and “speak with the gentleman” about the alleged affair.
Badea said: “I saw him (Andrei) when he was behind him (Mr Zeraati). I was not expecting him to come from behind.
“I saw David taking a knife out of his pocket. Then he stepped one step towards him. He stabbed him. I ran away.
“I got afraid. I was not expecting something like that.”
He ran, followed by Andrei, to a waiting Mazda car with Stana at the wheel.
Badea said that “at no point” was he laughing, in contrast with an eyewitness account previously heard by the jury.
He recalled being pushed by Andrei at one point, saying: “My legs were failing me, I was scared of what I saw.”
He got into the car and told Stana: “Drive quickly, drive quickly, David stabbed him.”
Badea told the court he later changed his clothes and threw them in a bin because Andrei asked him to. Badea said: “I did it because I was afraid of him and I was afraid of what he did to that gentleman.”
The defendants headed to Heathrow Airport on the day of the alleged attack and fled to Geneva in Switzerland.
The court heard they ordered a taxi using the Bolt app, initially setting the drop-off location as Tottenham, then adjusting it to Luton, and finally Heathrow Airport.
Badea said he later “confronted” Andrei when they were in Switzerland, telling the court: “I asked him, ‘Why did you do that? Do you intend to end up in prison?’
open image in gallery“I said I was going to tell the authorities what happened. He got angry. We had an argument and he slapped me – once but very hard. He said, ‘You will never go to the police because I will take care of you’.”
Badea told the court he wanted to find someone “to contact the British authorities and tell the truth of what happened”, and said he spoke to two other men who knew about the allegations about the affair.
He said: “They told me my family would suffer repercussions if I were to tell the authorities.”
Badea, who was eventually extradited back to England, stressed that in “no way” was he paid for what happened to Mr Zeraati.
His defence counsel David Spens KC, told him earlier: “The person that you were going to confront on 29 March – did you know that he was a journalist expressing views against the regime of Iran?”
Badea replied: “No, I had no idea.”
He said that in March 2024 he had not heard of a UK-based firm or a number of people who the prosecution say can be linked to the funding of the plot to attack the journalist.
Mr Zeraati worked for Iran International, a competitor of the state broadcaster, which the Iranian regime designated as a terrorist organisation and branded “a network of spies”, the court has heard.
The Persian-language news outlet was based in Chiswick, west London, until February 2023 when threats made against the network, its employees and their families led to it relocating temporarily to Washington DC.
The hearing continues.