By Rachel Roberts
Two men were charged under the UK’s National Security Act on Oct. 27 over last month’s incident at a military base, with prosecutors accusing the pair of attempting to help Iranian intelligence in Britain.
RAF Fairford had been used by U.S. bombers to carry out strikes on Iran. The airplanes were removed by the Pentagon shortly after five men, described as British citizens, were arrested outside the base in southwest England in the early hours of Sept. 27.
Mohmed Ahmad Abdulkarim, 24, a British national, has been charged with engaging in conduct likely to materially assist a foreign intelligence service between Aug. 31 and Sept. 28, with counter-terror police saying the country is believed to be Iran.
Nouman Essghir, a 24-year-old with dual British-Iranian nationality, who was among those arrested outside the military base on Sept. 27, is charged with one offense of entering a prohibited place for a purpose prejudicial to the UK on Aug. 22.
The pair were due to appear before London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Oct. 27.
The incident, which remains largely unexplained, attracted huge international attention at a time of heightened concern about security implications for Western states amid the war between the United States and Iran.
“We have seen a range of incidents in recent months that we believe have been directed by the Iranian state, and as the Director General of MI5 said just the other week, we are working together to intervene, identify and respond to that threat,” Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, the head of National Counter Terrorism Policing in the UK, said, referring to remarks made by Ken McCallum, the domestic intelligence agency chief.
Essghir was first arrested at the scene in Gloucestershire before being re-arrested on Oct. 20, Taylor said.
A second man, a 25-year-old with dual Iranian and British nationalities who was re-arrested on the same date, has been released without charge and remains on police bail, following his initial arrest on Oct. 1.
Taylor said that after Essghir was re-arrested, detectives then interviewed Abdulkarim under caution before charging him.
Police said the six people arrested in connection with the Fairford incident remain on bail.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said in a statement that Abdulkarim and Essghir were both charged under the 2023 National Security Act.
Frank Ferguson, chief prosecutor for the Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said the CPS had “decided to prosecute two individuals with National Security Act offences following a Counter Terrorism Policing investigation into a high-profile incident involving RAF Fairford.”
“We will continue to work closely with our partners as this complex investigation continues,” he added.
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said earlier this month that the activity at RAF Fairford was probably organized in Iran.
“I can confirm our assessment that it is highly likely to have been coordinated in Iran—almost certainly directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard,” Burnham told lawmakers on Oct. 12.
Tehran’s ambassador to Britain denied the allegation in a Sept. 28 statement posted to social media.
The Labour prime minister said investigators were in close contact with the United States about protective security at shared military bases across the UK as the Fairford investigation continued.
“We will not tolerate these threats on our soil. We will crack down on Iran’s use of criminal networks, using our full range of powers to target them and their funding streams. And we will bring further sanctions to restrict the capacity of Iran … to do us harm,” Burnham said.
The Pentagon pulled all of its B-1 bombers from the Fairford base following the incident. On March 1, then-Prime Minister Keir Starmer authorized the United States to use British bases to launch defensive strikes against Iranian missile facilities.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sept. 27 that those involved in the RAF Fairford incident had been looking to do “big damage.”
When asked if Iran-linked actors may have brought armed drones into the UK to carry out attacks, Trump told reporters on Oct. 5, “I can’t tell you that. But if they did, they’ll suffer greatly.”
RAF Fairford is home to the U.S. Air Force’s 501st Combat Support Wing headquarters and the 420th Air Base Squadron and serves as the “preferred bomber forward operating location in Europe” for USAF Global Strike Command.
The RAF said it canceled the base’s annual airshow in May because “the escalating geopolitical situation in the Middle East has required a significant increase in real-world operational missions out of RAF Fairford.”
Counterterrorism police have stated that the five men arrested near the military base on Sept. 27 were all British nationals from the London area and were between 23 and 25 years old.
They were detained after a local farmer called the police and reported that three large white vans were heading toward the airfield.
Chris Summers contributed to this report.
