Five Iranians, including a general of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic, are being prosecuted in the United States for having ordered the assassination of an Iranian-American journalist and dissident in New York in 2022, according to reports court documents released Tuesday.
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The target is not identified in this new indictment dated October 17, completing a procedure already initiated on this planned murder, and made public on Tuesday, but opponent Masih Alinejad confirmed on acted on her.
“The revelation that the assassination plan against me in July 2022 was fomented by the Guardians of Ali Khamenei (the Iranian Supreme Leader, Editor’s note) is a brutal reminder of the lengths to which the Islamic regime is prepared to go to reduce silence dissidents, even those far from Iran’s borders,” she stressed.
In a previous message on
She was referring to the phenomenon of authoritarian regimes projecting their control over their citizens outside their borders, which came to light with the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018, and which is constantly expanding, according to the human rights defenders.
In January 2023, American authorities announced the indictment and arrest of three people in this case, Azerbaijani or Georgian citizens, alleged members of an Eastern European criminal organization acting at the instigation of the Iranian regime. .
There are now five Iranian nationals, including Revolutionary Guards general Rouhollah Bazghandi, all five presumed to be in Iran.
“The Department of Justice has now indicted eight individuals, including an Iranian military official, for their attempts to silence and kill an American citizen because of her criticism of the Iranian regime,” Justice Minister Merrick Garland said in a statement. a press release.
“This indictment reveals the extent of Iran’s plot to silence an American journalist for her criticism of the Iranian regime,” said the director of the American Federal Police (FBI), Christopher Wray, quoted in the text. .
According to the indictment, this assassination plan was conceived following the failure of a previous attempt in 2018 to kidnap Masih Alinejad, who had to leave his country in 2009.
Four Iranian government agents were indicted in July 2021 in this case.
