Two Iranians are remanded to the Old Bailey over a Manchester bomb plot

Rahman Salehi, 34, and Salam Ahmadyan, 36, appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Saturday charged with preparing a terrorist attack on the Jewish community in Manchester. They did not plead. A judge remanded them to the Old Bailey for 23 October.

Prosecutor Luckett told the court both men are accused of planning the attack with a homemade explosive. He said they were in contact with a third person who is alleged to have directed the planning and to have given instructions for a device made from chlorine and brake fluid. Police assess that the third person is also an Iranian national and is most likely in Iran. A synagogue attacked last year was among the targets named in court. Luckett said the case is not connected to last week's suspected plot against RAF Fairford.

The arrests were on 20 September, as Yom Kippur began. Counter-terror police have said the men carried out hostile surveillance on Jewish sites in Manchester that day, and that they had tried to obtain parts for an improvised device. The Crown Prosecution Service charged them on Friday with preparing acts of terrorism on or before Yom Kippur. Saturday's hearing is the first time a prosecutor has put the alleged explosive mix and the synagogue in open court.

Both men reached Britain on small boats, Luckett said. Salehi arrived in 2020 and was granted asylum. Ahmadyan arrived in 2023 and his asylum claim was still open. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood had already said one man had asylum and the other had a live claim, and she had called the Iranian state a serious threat. The court record now attaches the years to the names. Salehi is the 2020 arrival with status. Ahmadyan is the 2023 arrival without a decision.

The chemical claim is specific enough to test later. Chlorine and brake fluid are household and garage products. A prosecutor who alleges that mix is alleging a recipe, not only a wish. Whether the men had bought either chemical is not in the summary Luckett gave on Saturday. What is in it is the instruction from the third person, the surveillance on 20 September, and a synagogue on the target list. The men deny nothing yet, because they have not been asked to plead. A remand to 23 October means the next public step is at the Old Bailey, not a trial date.

Manchester's Jewish community has lived with a named attack already. Police and the CPS have been careful, in the Friday statements, to say the plot was disrupted. Saturday's addition is the method they say was intended, and the forum. Westminster Magistrates' Court is the first appearance. The Old Bailey is where the case will be managed. Fairford, the base the US has used for strikes on Iran, is a different file, with a dual British-Iranian national arrested on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts. Luckett's separation of the two cases is the line the prosecution does not want blurred.

The names, ages and dates are now fixed in a courtroom rather than only in a police note. Salehi, 34, asylum granted after a 2020 crossing. Ahmadyan, 36, claim outstanding after a 2023 crossing. Arrested 20 September. Charged ahead of a Saturday appearance. Next hearing 23 October. Alleged device: chlorine and brake fluid. Alleged director: a third Iranian, most likely inside Iran.