Iran-linked plot suspects remanded over Manchester Jewish sites surveillance

Two Iranian men accused of planning attacks on Jewish sites in Manchester were remanded in custody by a London court on Saturday. Prosecutors said the men carried out surveillance of a synagogue that was the scene of a deadly attack last year and also researched another Jewish site nearby.

Salam Ahmadyan, 36, and Rahman Salehi, 34, were arrested last month and charged on Friday with engaging in conduct in preparation for terrorist acts. Prosecutor Mark Luckett told the court that the pair were acting under the direction of a third person believed to be in Iran, who coordinated the plans and gave instructions on making a homemade chlorine bomb.

At Westminster Magistrates' Court, neither man entered a plea. Judge Nina Tempia ordered that they be held until their next appearance on October 23 at the Central Criminal Court in London.

Luckett said the two men had researched attacking the Heaton Park Congregation Synagogue in Manchester in north-west England and the Jewish Museum in nearby Cheetham Hill. He told the court that the defendants were observed carrying out "a hostile reconnaissance within Manchester's Jewish community".

The Heaton Park synagogue was the site of an attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, on October 2, 2025. The court heard that Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, crashed his car into the gates and then launched a knife attack while wearing a fake suicide belt. Congregation members Melvin Cravitz, 66, and Adrian Daulby, 53, were killed, while three other men were seriously wounded. Al-Shamie, who allegedly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, was shot dead by police.

The court was also told that Ahmadyan and Salehi entered the UK without authorisation in the past six years after crossing the English Channel by boat. Salehi was granted asylum, while Ahmadyan has a pending asylum claim.

Vicki Evans, senior national coordinator of counterterror policing, said investigators believed the alleged plot was isolated and that there was no ongoing threat to the public. She also said it was not linked to a suspected terror plot at the US-run RAF Fairford air base, which some officials have said was connected to Tehran. "I'm aware that the news of this alleged plot coming during the High Holy Day period has caused a great deal of concern," Evans said. "It also coincides with the anniversary of the devastating terrorist attack last year at Heaton Park synagogue and comes in a wider context of increasing antisemitic incidents across the UK, so we are very aware that this will likely increase what were already heightened concerns amongst the Jewish community."

The case centres on allegations that the two men surveyed Jewish sites in Manchester and prepared for a possible attack, with prosecutors saying the plan involved outside direction and instructions for a homemade bomb.