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Iranian military official, 3 others charged in plot to assassinate journalist in New York

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged a military official with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran and three others with links to that government with plotting to assassinate an Iranian-American journalist in New York.

The IRGC official, Ruhollah Bazghandi, was a brigadier general who previously served as chief of the corps’ counterintelligence department, according to an indictment unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn. Bazghandi, who the U.S. Treasury Department previously sanctioned, and the other three defendants — Fnu Lnu, also known as Haj Taher; Hossein Sedighi; and Seyed Mohammad Forouzan — are based in Iran and remain at large, prosecutors said.

U.S. prosecutors have previously charged other suspects in the case, including one man in 2022 and two others in 2023. Though she was not named in this week’s court filing, one of the previously charged suspects in the case was arrested for having a rifle outside the Brooklyn home of Iranian-American journalist and human rights activist Masih Alinejad.

“Today’s indictment exposes the full extent of Iran’s plot to silence an American journalist for criticizing the Iranian regime,” said U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray in a statement.

After the charges were filed, Alinejad took to social media and said she remains “determined to echo the voices of millions of Iranians” fighting for justice.

“I will continue advocating for the rights of the Iranian people to secure democracy and free themselves from dictatorship, no matter the risks,” Alinejad said on X. “My spirit of resistance is alive, and no amount of intimidation or violence can extinguish it.”

Prosecutors accused IRGC of murder-for-hire plot

Alinejad has long spoken out against Iran’s human rights abuses and suppression of political expression. Prosecutors claim that the IRGC, a designated terrorist organization by the U.S., attempted to assassinate Alinejad on U.S. soil and plotted to kidnap her in 2020 and 2021 “to silence the victim’s criticism of the regime.”

The Department of Justice unsealed indictments in January 2023 alleging that members of an Eastern European crime group, known as the Bazghandi Network, were hired to murder Alinejad.

Court documents revealed that members of the Bazghandi Network had been tasked with the assassination plot since at least July 2022. Prosecutors accused Bazghandi, Haj Taher, Sedighi, and Forouzan of contracting Rafat Amirov, Polad Omarov, Zailat Mamedov, and Khalid Mehdiyev for the murder plot.

The murder-for-hire plot was directed by Amirov, who at the time resided in Iran and provided information on Alinejad to Omarov, according to court documents. Omarov then collaborated with Mamedov and Mehdiyev to carry out the plot.

Prosecutors have said members of the crime group had plotted to lure Alinejad out of her house by asking her for flowers from her garden and then gun her down.

“Mehdiyev’s participation in the plot was disrupted when he was arrested near the victim’s home on or about July 28, 2022, while in possession of the assault rifle, along with 66 rounds of ammunition, approximately $1,100 in cash, and a black ski mask,” the Department of Justice said in a news release.

Amirov, Omarov, and Mamedov were arrested overseas in January 2023 and charged for their involvement in the plot, according to prosecutors. Amirov and Omarov are currently in U.S. custody and Mamedov was extradited from the Czech Republic to the country of Georgia to face charges there.

Despite their arrests, prosecutors said other members of the Bazghandi Network continued to target Alinejad.

Prosecutors alleged that in March 2023, Haj Taher searched for information on Alinejad’s family and Sedighi saved an image on her residence. Months later in May 2023, prosecutors said Bazghandi searched online for “a person in the house of [the victim] movie,” and watched a video with the title, “A video of the arrested gunman in front of [the victim]’s home in New York received by [the victim’s employer].”

Bazghandi, Haj Taher, Sedighi, and Forouzan have been charged with murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and sanctions against the Iran government, according to the indictment.

Tuesday’s indictment is the latest in flaring tensions between the U.S. and Iran. As the Iran-Israel conflict intensifies, the U.S. has faced a wave of attempted hits and kidnappings, according to Reuters.

In recent years, federal authorities have reported an increase in plots tied to the Islamic Republic of Iran. In an analysis of court documents and public statements by government officials, Reuters found that there have been at least 33 assassination or abduction attempts in the West in which local or Israeli authorities allege an Iran link since 2020.

Federal authorities have accused Iran of trying to assassinate U.S. officials in retaliation for the killing of an Iranian general in a 2020 drone strike ordered by then-President Donald Trump and other hardline policies.

Last month, the Biden administration offered a $20 million reward for an IRGC member charged in a murder-for-hire plot targeting former national security adviser John Bolton. The reward came after Trump said he’d been briefed by U.S. intelligence officials about “real and specific” Iranian threats to his life.

Earlier this year, the Department of Justice indicted an Iranian and two Canadian nationals for an alleged plot to murder an Iranian defector and another Maryland resident on U.S. soil. The three defendants were part of a criminal network targeting Iranian dissidents under the Iranian government’s direction, according to prosecutors.

Source: USA Today

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