The Charity Commission has issued an improvement order at a religious charity, where an Iranian military leader was reportedly “eulogised” on its premises.

The moves comes amid an investigation by the regulator into London based Islamic Centre of England that launched three years ago due to concerns around links the charity has to Iran.

This includes concerns that the late military commander Major General Qasam Soleimani, who was killed by a US air strike, had been praised at an event held on the charity’s premises.

Another concern was raised around newspaper reports of a speech by a trustee condemning women protestors in Iran, who were reportedly referred to as “soldiers of Satan”.

The charity has been issued with a formal order under the Charities Act “compelling trustees to provide rigorous oversight of future speakers and online activity by the charity”.

This comes as the regulator found there had been misconduct and/or mismanagement during its ongoing inquiry.

The regulator points out that two additional trustees have been appointed at the charity following “extensive work” by an interim manager appointed by the Commission to take temporary charge of its work.

During its probe the Commission has raised with concerns over a failure by trustees to cooperate with its plans for improvement, including the appointment of an interim manager.

“The Commission has taken regulatory action during the inquiry, which remains ongoing, on wide-ranging governance issues and breaches of previous advice and orders,” it said.

“These included more recently failure to fully comply with the Order appointing the Interim Manager and failure to fully comply with directions.

“The Commission considers these, and a range of other past breaches, mismanagement and misconduct in the administration of the charity.”

The trustees currently dispute some of these legal findings, added the regulator.

Charity Commission chief executive David Holdsworth added: “The law requires, and the public expect charities to operate exclusively for the public benefit.

“The vast majority of charities do so successfully, making a difference every day.

“As this case shows, when a charity fails to operate in line with its legal duties we will step in to take action. We now expect the trustees to take the required action directed by the Commission and will not hesitate to use further legal powers should that be necessary.”

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