US charges Iranian official in alleged plot to kill activist in New York
Al Jazeera
US Justice Department says IRGC’s Ruhollah Bazghandi led murder-for-hire scheme to kill dissident Masih Alinejad.
The United States Justice Department has formally accused a senior official in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of involvement in a 2022 plot to kill an Iranian American dissident in New York City.
The murder-for-hire and money laundering charges against Ruhollah Bazghandi and three other Iranian citizens were revealed on Tuesday as part of a revised indictment laying out the alleged scheme.
The Justice Department did not name the target of the purported plot, but Iranian American journalist and activist Masih Alinejad confirmed that she was the potential victim.
“The revelation that the assassination plot against 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 far beyond Iran’s borders,” she said, referring to Iran’s supreme leader.
Last year, the Justice Department charged several people with trying to kill Alinejad. One of the suspects – Khalid Mehdiyev – had been arrested outside her house with a rifle.
