US charges Iranian official in alleged plot to kill activist in New York

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.

According to the indictment, Bazghandi and other Iranian officials contracted members of an Eastern European criminal organisation to kill Alinejad.

Bazghandi and the three other Iranian citizens, who are based in Iran, remain at large, US authorities said.

The Justice Department said Bazghandi is “an IRGC Brigadier General and has previously served as chief of an IRGC Intelligence Organization (IRGC-IO)”.

In a statement on Tuesday, US Attorney General Merrick Garland said: “We will not tolerate efforts by an authoritarian regime like Iran to undermine the fundamental rights guaranteed to every American.”

Alinejad has been an outspoken critic of the Iranian government and its treatment of women, including enforcement of mandatory hijab in the country.

In 2021, US prosecutors also charged four Iranians, alleged to be intelligence officers, with plotting to abduct Alinejad.

Tehran dismissed allegations of involvement in the kidnapping plot at that time as “ridiculous and baseless”.

Since the start of the Israeli offensive in Gaza, which has killed more than 42,700 Palestinians, Alinejad has been pushing to portray Hamas as an Iranian proxy, calling for an end to the current governing system in Tehran.

Tuesday’s charges come amid a major standoff in the Middle East with anticipation of an attack by Israel – the top US ally in the region – against Iran.

US President Joe Biden has suggested that he is aware of how and when the Israeli assault will take place. US officials previously vowed “severe consequences” for an Iranian rocket attack against Israel on October 1.

Iran targeted military bases in Israel in response to the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and the assassinations of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and an Iranian general in Beirut.