Senior Iranian Military Official Charged with Attempted Murder of Prominent Activist in New York

A senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) official and seven others were charged by federal prosecutors on Tuesday for their role in a failed assassination plot against a prominent Iranian-born human-rights activist.

The indictment names Brigadier General Ruhollah Bazghandi, marking the first time the U.S. has directly accused a high-ranking Iranian official of participating in the scheme.

“The Justice Department has now charged eight individuals, including an Iranian military official, for their efforts to silence and kill a U.S. citizen because of her criticism of the Iranian regime,” said U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. Three of the eight are in U.S. custody, the Justice Department confirmed.

The U.S. government thwarted the plot targeting Masih Alinejad, an outspoken critic of the Iranian regime. This led to federal murder-for-hire charges against members of an Eastern European criminal organization with ties to Tehran.

“Today’s indictment makes plain that the Iranian regime for years has been behind a violent campaign to stalk, intimidate, and arrange the killing of an American dissident on U.S. soil for bravely speaking up for the rights of the Iranian people,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

The Treasury Department revealed that Bazghandi had previously played a role in assassination plots against Iranians, Israelis, and others.

In 2020, Alinejad wrote of the Iranian government’s efforts to kidnap her.

“A few days ago, I woke up in my house in Brooklyn to learn that the Iranian government had unleashed a social media campaign calling for my abduction,” she wrote in the Washington Post.

“It’s been a horrifying experience, but I can’t say that it’s been entirely unexpected. The regime has tried many forms of intimidation to silence me over the years.”

Alinejad fled the Islamic Republic to New York in 2009 following a string of demonstrations protesting election results. In an interview on Tuesday, Alinejad said, “The Iranian regime always uses criminal gangs to do their dirty jobs beyond their own borders, to get away from punishment, to get away from accountability.”

The activist said she is even “more determined to give voice to Iranian people, especially women, who actually face the same killers within their country,” according to the New York Times.