An official with Iran's Revolutionary Guard has been charged in a failed plot to kill an Iranian-American author on US soil, per the AP. Ruhollah Bazghandi and three other men were charged in a new indictment of trying to kill Masih Alinejad in Brooklyn in 2022, according to the New York Times. The opposition activist and journalist has been living in exile in New York City. Her identity is not in court papers, but she confirmed to the AP that she was the intended target. Alinejad fled Iran following the country's disputed 2009 presidential election. Bazghandi, who is not in custody, is described in court papers as a brigadier general who previously served as chief of the Revolutionary Guard's counterintelligence department.
In 2017, the Office of Foreign Assets Control—a wing of the US Department of the Treasury—designated the Revolutionary Guard as a global terrorist group, saying it has played a key role in supporting Iran's involvement in international terrorism. In April 2023, the office said Bazghandi was involved in assassination plots against journalists, Israeli citizens, and others deemed enemies of Iran. The indictment also accuses him of taking part in the detention of foreign prisoners in Iran and in operations in Syria by the Revolutionary Guard's counterintelligence department. (More Iran stories.)
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