US Charges Iranian Official in Plot To Kill Journalist in New York
The United States has indicted an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) official for allegedly orchestrating a plan to kidnap and assassinate Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad in New York, according to court documents unsealed on Tuesday. The official, Ruhollah Bazghandi, a brigadier general and former chief of the IRGC’s counterintelligence department, is among several individuals charged in the case.
“Today’s indictment exposes the full extent of Iran’s plot to silence an American journalist for criticizing the Iranian regime,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray.
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Bazghandi and three other newly charged defendants are based in Iran and remain at large, prosecutors said. The charges come after previous indictments against other suspects in 2022 and January 2023. One of the earlier defendants, Khalid Mehdiyev, was arrested outside Alinejad’s Brooklyn home with a loaded rifle. Mehdiyev and another man, Rafat Amirov, are in US custody and have pleaded not guilty to murder-for-hire charges.
Prosecutors allege that the defendants planned to lure Alinejad out of her home by asking for flowers from her garden and then assassinate her. Bazghandi’s online activities, along with those of the other individuals named on Tuesday, suggest involvement in multiple assassination plots, authorities said.
Alinejad is a prominent journalist and human rights activist who has been a vocal critic of the Iranian government’s treatment of women and minorities. She has lived in exile in the United States since 2009 and has faced multiple threats due to her activism.
Bazghandi was previously sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for his role in IRGC activities. The latest charges highlight ongoing tensions between the US and Iran, particularly concerning Iran’s attempts to silence dissidents abroad.
