A London-based Houthi TV company is set to be struck from the UK’s official register of companies after an investigation by The National revealed its presence in the country.
Al Masirah TV has been registered as a business at Companies House since 2014, despite not broadcasting any content or raising any income. It filed accounts regularly until its presence was exposed in January this year.
The company was given a warning on August 25 that it had two months to file its annual accounts plus a statement confirming that publicly available details, such as the names of the directors, were correct.
It failed to do so, and its Companies House entry now shows it will be dissolved on November 10. If the company wants to prevent that, it must obtain a court order.
Al Masirah TV has used a postal address at a cafe to maintain a presence in London. One of the UK company's directors is listed as Ammar Al Hamzy, director general of the parent station, which broadcasts in Yemen but is based in Beirut. A former director is listed as Ebrahim Al Dulaimi, who is the Houthi envoy to Iran and sits on the political council for Ansar Allah.
The exact purpose of Al Masirah TV being registered as a company in the UK is not known, but its presence has raised concerns over alleged illicit funding, visa fraud and intelligence gathering on political rivals.
Alicia Kearns, the shadow home affairs minister, who covers national security, raised the company's presence during a speech in the House of Commons.
Ms Kearns told The National the company being struck off “raises serious questions” about why it was able to exist in the first place.
“A Houthi-linked television station has no place maintaining its foothold in Britain while concerns remain over visa abuse and intelligence gathering,” she said.
“The government must take action to shut down blatant propaganda operations on our streets and stop providing terrorists with a back door into Britain.”
The government agreed to look at the presence of Al Masirah TV after Conservative MP Bob Blackman raised concerns in the House of Commons that it could breach anti-terrorism funding regulations or be used by Houthi rebels as a cover to obtain visas for the UK.
Jonathan Hackett, a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer, previously told The National it could enable access for Houthi rebels who need visas to come to the UK.
“Using this facility as that cover makes it a lot easier in an immigration interview to be able to get a visa, because you have a plausible explanation, you have an overt reason for being in the country,” said Mr Hackett, the author of Iran's Shadow Weapons: Covert Action, Intelligence Operations and Unconventional Warfare.
The station is the mouthpiece of the Houthi rebels, also known as Ansar Allah, who have held large parts of northern Yemen since 2015, territory that is home to about 25 million people.
It is affiliated to the Islamic Radio and Television Union (IRTVU), the media arm of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The IRTVU supports and in many cases creates the bulk of the television channels and other media outlets run by Iran’s proxies, which also include Hezbollah, Kataib Hezbollah and Hamas.
