‘Show must go on’ for Iranian journalist stabbed in London

LONDON — A journalist for an independent Iranian media outlet in London stabbed outside his home last week has returned to work, saying “the show must go on.”

Pouria Zeraati, a presenter for Iran International, needed hospital treatment for leg wounds suffered in the March 29 attack.

The 36-year-old said the stabbing was a “warning shot.”

“The fact that they just stopped in my leg was their choice,” he told ITV News.

“They had the opportunity to kill me because the way the second person was holding me and the first person took the knife out, they had the opportunity to stop anywhere they wanted,” he added.

Zeraati said he had returned to work Friday, adding: “Whatever the motive was, the show must go on.”

London’s Metropolitan Police say the two suspects went straight from the scene in southwest London to Heathrow Airport and left the U.K. “within a few hours.”

Detectives were considering whether “the victim’s occupation as a journalist at a Persian-language media organization based in the U.K.” could have prompted the assault.

Iran’s charge d’affaires in the U.K., Mehdi Hosseini Matin, however, said Tehran denied “any link” to the attack.

The Metropolitan Police has previously disrupted what it has called plots in the U.K. to kidnap or even kill British or Britain-based individuals perceived as enemies of Tehran.

The Iranian government has declared Iran International a terrorist organization.

The U.K. government last year unveiled a tougher sanctions regime against Iran over alleged human rights violations and hostile actions against its opponents on U.K. soil.
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