People walk past a billboard depicting the late leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and the late Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on a street in Tehran, Iran, June 10, 2026. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Two Iranian nationals are due to go on trial next year charged over an alleged plot to use a homemade bomb to attack the Jewish community in northern England at the behest of a figure believed to be based in Iran, a London court was told on Friday.

Rahman Salehi, 34, and Salam Ahmadyan, 36, appeared at London’s Old Bailey court accused of preparing acts of terrorism. The lawyers for the two men told the court that both intended to plead not guilty.

Prosecutor Lyndon Harris said the men were allegedly seen by police taking photos and video of Jewish sites in Manchester, on the eve of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, in September.

Harris added that the prosecution case was that “this was reconnaissance in preparation for an act of terrorism, an attack on the Jewish community in Manchester.”

He said the men were accused of being in contact with a third party, believed to be based in Iran, who it was alleged provided a document with instructions on how to assemble a homemade explosive device made from chlorine and brake fluid.

Prosecutors said at a previous hearing that their alleged targets included the Manchester Jewish Museum and Heaton Park synagogue, the scene of a deadly attack almost a year ago in which two Jewish worshippers were killed.

The two men were told their trial was listed to start in Manchester on June 15 next year.