The US Division of Justice says the IRGC’s Ruhollah Bazghandi led a murder-for-hire plot to kill dissident Masih Alinejad.
The US Division of Justice has indicted a senior official in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of taking part in a plot in 2022 to kill an Iranian-American dissident in New York Metropolis.
Homicide-for-hire and cash laundering costs in opposition to Ruhollah Bazghandi and three different Iranian nationals have been unsealed Tuesday as a part of a revised indictment exposing the alleged scheme.
The Justice Division didn’t identify the goal of the alleged plot, however Iranian-American journalist and activist Masih Alinejad confirmed that she was the potential sufferer.
“The revelation that the assassination plot in opposition to me in July 2022 was orchestrated by Ali Khamenei’s IRGC is a stark reminder of the brutal lengths to which the Islamic regime will go to silence dissidents, even those that are most weak. past the borders of Iran,” he stated, referring to Iran’s supreme chief.
Final yr, the Justice Division charged a number of individuals with making an attempt to kill Alinejad. One of many suspects, Khalid Mehdiyev, was arrested in entrance of his home with a rifle.
In line with the indictment, Bazghandi and different Iranian officers employed members of an Japanese European prison group to kill Alinejad.
Bazghandi and the three different Iranian nationals, who’re in Iran, stay at massive, U.S. authorities stated.
The Justice Division stated Bazghandi is “an IRGC brigadier common and beforehand served as head of an IRGC Intelligence Group (IRGC-IO).”
In a press release Tuesday, U.S. Lawyer Common Merrick Garland stated, “We won’t tolerate efforts by an authoritarian regime like Iran to undermine the elemental rights assured to all Individuals.”
Alinejad has been an outspoken critic of the Iranian authorities and its therapy of ladies, together with the nation’s enforcement of obligatory hijab.
In 2021, US prosecutors additionally charged 4 Iranians, suspected intelligence brokers, with conspiring to kidnap Alinejad.
Tehran dismissed accusations of involvement within the kidnapping plot on the time as “ridiculous and baseless.”
Because the begin of the Israeli offensive in Gaza, which has killed greater than 42,700 Palestinians, Alinejad has been pushing to current Hamas as an Iranian proxy, calling for an finish to the present system of presidency in Tehran.
Tuesday’s costs come amid a serious standoff within the Center East with anticipation of an assault by Israel – the US’ primary ally within the area – in opposition to Iran.
US President Joe Biden has implied that he is aware of how and when the Israeli assault will happen. US officers beforehand promised “severe penalties” for an Iranian rocket assault on Israel on October 1.
Iran attacked army bases in Israel in response to the assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and the assassinations of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and an Iranian common in Beirut.