LONDON (AP) — Four men pleaded guilty Friday to destroying four Jewish community ambulances in an arson attack in north London earlier this year that many said was a direct result of the start of the Iran war.
Sentencing will take place in the spring of 2027 at the conclusion of a separate trial involving another man charged in connection with the ambulance attack, Justice Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said at London’s Central Criminal Court.
Hamza Iqbal, 20, Rehan Khan, 19, Judex Atshatshi, and Saif Ali, both 18, faced a charge of destroying or damaging property and of being reckless as to whether life would be endangered.
The four ambulances torched in the early hours of March 23 were owned by Hatzola, a Jewish volunteer-led charity operating in the Golders Green area of north London. The ambulances each cost around 250,000 pounds ($340,000).
The attack was one of several incidents deemed to have been antisemitic that took place in the weeks after the U.S. and Israel first launched attacks on Iran on Feb. 28.
Three of the defendants were said to have set fire to the fully stocked vehicles, while a fourth waited in a car. The resulting blaze caused gas canisters inside the ambulances to explode, and nearby apartments and a synagogue were also damaged by the fire.
Prosecutor Leo Seelig suggested the incident had a “terrorist connection” although no mention was made in court of potential proxies working for Iran.
Counterterrorism police had looked into the possible involvement of Iranian proxies in the Jewish ambulance arson, as well as other attacks on Jewish sites in London.
Most have been claimed online by Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right.
The Iranian Embassy in the U.K. has said that it “categorically rejects” allegations of involvement in “violent activities or incidents in the United Kingdom.”
At the same hearing, a fifth defendant, Subhan Ahmed, 18, pleaded not guilty to a charge of assisting an offender. Ahmed, who is alleged to have helped to get rid of the car used in the attack, will go on trial on Jan. 27.