Luxury apartments worth 50 million pounds (1.4 billion crowns) in Kensington are located about 50 meters from the Israeli embassy building. They could be misused to monitor and photograph staff and visitors.
Roger Macmillan, a specialist in terrorism and security, told the Daily Mail that a similarly small distance allows the interception of conversations outside, as well as “laser-assisted monitoring of window vibrations to obtain speech from inside”. There could also be hacking of the embassy’s wireless networks and therefore monitoring of movement on the Internet.
“Two flats, direct view, held through Mojtab Khamenei. It’s not a real estate portfolio – it’s a permanent surveillance platform,” said Roger Macmillan.
In addition, the apartments on the sixth and seventh floors are just a short walk from Kensington Palace, the official residence of the Prince and Princess of Wales.
Mojtaba Khamenei, the leader of the feared Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has reportedly owned both apartments since 2014, but his ownership came to light only after a year-long investigation by the Bloomberg news agency.
That investigation also revealed that money to buy luxury London properties linked to Mojtab Khamenei came from Iran’s oil program, which was designed to circumvent international sanctions.
Bloomberg’s investigation also revealed that Khamenei had amassed a portfolio of properties around the world worth hundreds of millions of pounds with the help of intermediaries.
