IRGC Official Among Plotters Indicted for Attempted Murder of U.S.-Based Iranian Dissident

Latest Developments

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed charges against four Iranians on October 22 in connection with a 2022 plot to assassinate Iranian dissident journalist Masih Alinejad at her New York City home. The indictments, brought by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, include a high-ranking member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Brig. Gen. Ruhollah Bazghandi, who is also known as Roohollah Azimi. Bazghandi previously served as chief of the IRGC Intelligence Organization (IRGC-IO), which was designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. Treasury Department in April 2023 for its role in the hostage-taking and wrongful detention of U.S. nationals. The three other individuals charged by the DOJ were criminal associates of Bazghandi, named as Haj Taher, Hossein Sedighi, and Seyed Mohammad Forouzan. All four indicted individuals live in Iran and are still at large. The indictment includes charges of murder-for-hire, money laundering, and evasion of sanctions.

According to a DOJ press release, the network was responsible for contracting with members of an Eastern European criminal organization known as “Thieves-in-Law” to murder Alinejad due to her activism against Iran’s ruling regime. The plot was thwarted on July 28 when police stopped and arrested Khalid Mehdiyev of Yonkers, New York, as he was driving away from Alinejad’s house. Mehdiyev’s vehicle contained weapons, ammunition, a black ski mask, and $1,000 in cash. The DOJ revealed in a January 2023 indictment that Mehdiyev had surveilled and attempted to assassinate Alinejad multiple times between July 24-28, with directions and resources for the plot coordinated by his co-conspirators Rafat Amirov, Polad Omarov, and Zialat Mamedov. Mehdiyev, Amirov, and Omarov are in U.S. custody, while Mamedov was extradited from the Czech Republic to face charges in the Republic of Georgia. The DOJ said that even after June 2022, the Bazghandi Network continued to collect information on Alinejad until May 2023. Prior to the assassination attempt, U.S. authorities had thwarted two plots, one in 2020 and another in 2021, by Iranian agents to kidnap Alinejad and transport her to Iran.

Expert Analysis

“Today’s announcement underscores once again that these are not rogue actors and reflects the lengths to which the Islamic Republic will go to quash the principled voice of an American woman. The details in the indictment are chilling and should be a wake-up call to the world. In this case, the FBI seems to have grasped what Iranians have long understood: appeasing the mullah’s regime doesn’t work because it’s their underlying ideology that is the problem.” — Toby Dershowitz, Managing Director of FDD Action

“The Islamic Republic’s campaign to suppress dissent reaches well beyond the confines of Iran itself. Tehran’s heightened aggression toward journalists abroad illustrates a troubling escalation in its support for terrorism and assassination plots on U.S. soil despite diplomatic overtures and economic concessions from the current administration. To counter this malign influence, Washington must consider reinstating maximum economic pressure on Iran to clearly convey that the regime will incur substantial consequences for its violent actions.” — Janatan Sayeh, FDD Research Analyst

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