{"id":22591,"date":"2024-04-09T22:03:58","date_gmt":"2024-04-09T22:03:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/09\/pouria-zeraati-iranian-journalist-describes-being-stabbed-outside-london-home-in-suspected-state-sponsored-attack\/"},"modified":"2024-04-09T22:03:58","modified_gmt":"2024-04-09T22:03:58","slug":"pouria-zeraati-iranian-journalist-describes-being-stabbed-outside-london-home-in-suspected-state-sponsored-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/09\/pouria-zeraati-iranian-journalist-describes-being-stabbed-outside-london-home-in-suspected-state-sponsored-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Pouria Zeraati: Iranian journalist describes being stabbed outside London home in suspected ‘state-sponsored attack’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pouria<\/div>


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An Iranian journalist has described the moment he was stabbed outside his home in what he believes was a state-sponsored attack.<\/p>\n

Pouria Zeraati, a 36-year-old presenter at London-based broadcaster Iran International, was attacked<\/a><\/strong> by three unknown assailants in Wimbledon on 29 March.<\/p>\n

In his first live interview, Mr Zeraati told Sky News’ The World With Yalda Hakim<\/strong><\/a> he “lost a lot of blood” in the stabbing.<\/p>\n

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\n Pouria Zeraati shared photo of himself from his hospital bed after being stabbed. Pic: X\/ @pouriazeraati
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He said he was walking towards his car when a man came up to him and asked for \u00a33 in cash.<\/p>\n

When Mr Zeraati replied that he did not have any change a second man approached and “grabbed me from the front very firmly”.<\/p>\n

At that point, he said the first person “stabbed me in the leg, the back side of my leg in my thigh, and very fast they ran away”.<\/p>\n

The journalist said at first he thought he had been robbed, but then realised he still had his phone, watch and wallet – and instead believed the attack may have been something to do with his job.<\/p>\n

Mr Zeraati said he thought the men were trying to harm rather than kill him.<\/p>\n

He said: “Because [of] the way they were holding me, and then they stabbed me in my leg – they could stab anywhere in my body. They could stab in my neck, they could stab in my heart. There are places specifically that people [aim for to] make sure the target is dead.”<\/p>\n

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\n \"Pouria\n <\/div>
\n Image:<\/span>
\n Pic: Iran International
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The Metropolitan Police said no arrests have yet been made.<\/p>\n

The force said it is confident the three suspects “do not present a risk to communities of London or the UK,” as detectives believe they fled the country via Heathrow Airport within hours of the stabbing.<\/p>\n

Mr Zeraati said: “It looks like a state-sponsored attack, but we need to wait for more investigation results to come out”.<\/p>\n

‘Situation is concerning’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr Zeraati, who returned to TV a week after the attack<\/strong><\/a>, said he was recovering and “feeling much better physically”.<\/p>\n

But he added: “Mentally it definitely takes some time to get over it”.<\/p>\n

Asked about his safety, he said: “Of course I am worried and I am concerned. We are under protection right now. I am not even allowed to visit my friends. The whole situation is concerning.<\/p>\n

“But if it was done to scare me and silence me, then definitely it’s not working. This was an attack on the job I do, this was an attack against the platform I have.”<\/p>\n

When asked about the attack, Mehdi Hosseini Matin, the Iranian<\/strong><\/a> charge d’affaires in the UK, said: “We deny any link”.<\/p>\n

‘State-backed threats’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Iran International editor Niusha Boghrati previously told Sky News that the station was guarded by armed police<\/strong><\/a>, and said threats had “turned into a reality of terrorism”.<\/p>\n

The broadcaster temporarily shut down its operations<\/strong><\/a> in London early last year and moved to studios in Washington after what it described as an escalation of “state-backed threats from Iran”.<\/p>\n

The station resumed broadcasting from a new location in London<\/strong><\/a> last September.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n

A Chechen-born man was jailed in December<\/strong><\/a> after being found guilty of spying on Iran International to help terror plotters.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Iranian journalist has described the moment he was stabbed outside his home in what he believes was a state-sponsored attack. Pouria Zeraati, a 36-year-old presenter at London-based broadcaster Iran International, was attacked by three unknown assailants in Wimbledon on 29 March. In his first live interview, Mr Zeraati told Sky News’ The World With […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/03\/768x432\/skynews-pouria-zeraati-twitter_6505148.jpg?20240330140103","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2601,5630,148,16121,2901,7196,19190,9873,28011,153,19191],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22591"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22591"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22593,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22591\/revisions\/22593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}