A Norwegian teenager has been convicted by a British court for conspiring to commit murder after prosecutors alleged he was recruited by a Swedish organised crime group that they said was being used by the Iranian government.
Market Context
The verdict was delivered on Wednesday after a retrial at London’s Old Bailey, where 19-year-old Johannes Natland was found guilty of conspiracy to murder. He had previously admitted possessing firearms and ammunition but denied that he intended to carry out any killing, news agency Reuters reported.
Natland was arrested in March last year in a hotel room in Huddersfield in northern England. Police recovered two firearms — a semi-automatic pistol and a revolver — along with ammunition from his possession.
Also read | UK government says more than half of England ‘officially in drought’
While he accepted the weapons charges, Natland argued during the trial that he had no intention of carrying out a murder. However, the jury at the retrial found him guilty of conspiracy to murder. His first trial in June had ended without a verdict on that charge after jurors were unable to reach a unanimous decision.
During the trial, prosecutors said Natland had been recruited by the Foxtrot Network, a Swedish organised crime group that they alleged was being used by the Iranian state. The group has been sanctioned by both Britain and the United States.
Also read | ‘National interest before anything else’: New UK PM Andy Burnham willing to call out Trump
Source
According to prosecutor Alistair Richardson, someone using the name “Agent 47” coordinated the hiring of an assassin, with €25,000 ($28,500) “in the pot” to fund the operation.
Addressing the jury, Richardson said Natland “neither knew, nor cared who he was to kill … to him, this was all about the money”.
The guilty verdict came after prosecutors renewed their case at the retrial. Natland’s initial trial had concluded without a decision on the conspiracy charge, requiring the matter to be heard again before a new jury.
The case is among those in Britain involving young adults accused of carrying out serious criminal acts after allegedly being recruited online for money, with prosecutors claiming they were used as proxies by a foreign state.
(With inputs from Reuters)
