Two face national security charges over RAF Fairford incident

British prosecutors have charged two 24-year-old men with national security offences after an investigation into activity near RAF Fairford, a US-operated airbase in Gloucestershire. One is accused of assisting a foreign intelligence service; the other is accused of entering a prohibited place for a purpose prejudicial to the United Kingdom.

Mohmed Ahmad Abdulkarim, a British-Iranian dual national, faces the charge of assisting a foreign intelligence service. Al Jazeera reported that the Crown Prosecution Service identified Iran’s intelligence service as the one he is accused of assisting. Nouman Essghir, a British national from Westminster, faces the prohibited-place charge over suspected activity on 22 August. Both men were due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.

The charges follow an incident outside the base on 27 September. Three suspicious vans were seen nearby, and police found petrol inside the vehicles, the BBC reported. Officers maintained a large cordon around the base for several days. Al Jazeera reported that armed police and army bomb-disposal experts searched the area for explosives and that dozens of residents were evacuated from their homes.

Essghir was first arrested at the scene on 27 September and re-arrested on 20 October, according to Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, the head of Counter Terrorism Policing. Taylor said Essghir was charged under Section 4 of the National Security Act 2023. Al Jazeera reported that Abdulkarim was arrested in the past week.

Eight men have been arrested in the investigation, including five near the airbase in September. Those five were initially arrested on suspicion of offences under the Explosives Act and later on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act, the BBC reported. Six men remain on police bail.

A 25-year-old UK-Iranian national who was re-arrested last week has been released without charge but remains on police bail following his first arrest earlier this month, Counter Terrorism Policing said. Police have not announced charges against the six men who remain on bail.

Iran has denied involvement in the incident. Al Jazeera reported that British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said last week that the activity at RAF Fairford was likely to have been coordinated in Iran, an allegation Iran’s ambassador to the UK denied.

RAF Fairford has been used by US bombers to carry out strikes on Iran this year, according to Al Jazeera. The outlet also reported that US B-1 bombers were withdrawn from the base shortly after the September incident. The wider police investigation continues.