A British court has convicted two men for a series of arson attacks targeting properties and a car linked to Prime Minister Keir Starmer. On Monday, a jury in London found Ukrainian national Roman Lavrynovych, 22, and Romanian Stanislav Carpiuc, 27, guilty of conspiracy to commit arson. The verdict followed a months-long trial in the British capital.

The attacks were carried out over five days in May last year and targeted a house Starmer vacated when he became prime minister in 2024, a house he part-owned, and a car that used to belong to him. Lavrynovych was also convicted on two counts of damaging property by fire and of being reckless as to whether the lives of others were endangered.

Prosecutors told the court that Lavrynovych was directed by a Russian-speaking individual using the alias 'El Money' via Telegram, who promised about $4,000 in cryptocurrency for carrying out the attacks. El Money was never identified or charged, but requested video of the attacks for online publicity. A third man, Petro Pochynok, 35, was acquitted of conspiracy to damage property by fire.

Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said the online handler was attempting to cause 'unrest' in the UK. 'There’s no evidence to suggest that they knew who they were targeting, and that that was the prime minister,' Flanagan said. The two men are due to be sentenced on Friday.

On Monday, the BBC reported that its investigation found the attack was part of 'an extensive campaign of sabotage, provocation and lies leading all the way to the Russian state,' naming El Money as 23-year-old Russian diplomat Evgeny Lyukshin. Al Jazeera could not independently verify the report. The Russian embassy rejected any attempt to associate Russia with unlawful activities, stating Russia poses no threat to the UK.

Source: www.aljazeera.com