Two Iranian Boat Arrivals Charged Over Manchester Jewish Community Bomb Plot
October 3, 2026 · Frisian News
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Salam Ahmadyan, 36, and Rahman Salehi, 34, both entered Britain by small boat and were permitted to remain before being charged with preparing a bomb attack on Manchester's Jewish community. One holds asylum status; the other has a live asylum claim.
Two men who entered Britain on small boats are now charged with plotting a bomb attack on the Jewish community in Manchester, one having been granted asylum and the other holding a live asylum claim at the time of their arrest.
Salam Ahmadyan, 36, of Liverpool, and Rahman Salehi, 34, of Salford, were arrested on September 20, 2026, and charged on October 2 with engaging in conduct in preparation for terrorist acts, contrary to Section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006. Counter Terrorism Policing says the alleged plot targeted Manchester's Jewish community in the days around Yom Kippur.
The charges are specific. According to Counter Terrorism Policing, the two men allegedly communicated via encrypted applications to acquire bomb components, obtained a document titled "Steps for Making a Powder Chlorine and Car Brake Oil/Fluid Bomb", gathered video instructions for building an improvised explosive device, acquired the liquids and equipment to assemble one, researched targets online, and conducted physical reconnaissance. Officers searched addresses in Epworth Street, Liverpool, and Lancaster Road, Salford.
Both men are Iranian nationals. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood confirmed, in a statement issued minutes after the charges were announced, that one arrived by small boat in 2020 and the other in 2023. One was granted asylum. The other has a live asylum claim. Counter Terrorism Policing says an overseas third party, believed to be in Iran, was in contact with the pair in connection with the plot.
Mahmood's statement acknowledged the arrivals but stopped well short of explaining how either man passed any security assessment. She said the fact both arrived by small boat was "a reminder of the importance of our relentless work to tackle illegal migration" and that "while numbers are down, I know there is more we must do." She gave no account of what vetting was applied to either man in the years between his arrival and his arrest, or why one of those processes ended with a full asylum grant.
The arrests fell on September 20, hours before Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. They came one year after a terrorist attack at Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester in which, the Guardian reports, two worshippers died. The Community Safety Trust, which provides security advice to British Jews, said the charges were "deeply concerning to Jews across the UK" and "a reminder of the ongoing terrorist threats facing British Jews."
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans of Counter Terrorism Policing separated this case from a distinct incident at RAF Fairford, where five men were arrested near the military base. "While this incident and the investigation into the RAF Fairford incident are not connected in any way," she said, the week "brought into sharp focus some of the wider threats being projected into the UK from Iran." Mahmood added that the Iranian regime "targets our Jewish communities and tries to silence their critics overseas, often through proxies and criminal networks."
The Guardian reported both men arrived when the Conservatives were in power, one in 2020 and one in 2023. For at least one of them, the assessment of that claim produced full asylum status. Both are now in custody charged with bomb-making.
The numbers that matter here are not the boat arrival totals or the processing backlogs. They are two: the number of people charged, both of whom the British state admitted and sheltered.
Published October 3, 2026 · Frisian News