U.S. Charges IRGC General in Failed 2022 Murder-for-Hire Plot Against Brooklyn Activist Masih Alinejad

Oct 22, 2024, 04:55 PM

U.S. federal prosecutors have charged Brigadier General Ruhollah Bazghandi, a senior official in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and three other men connected to the Iranian government with participating in a failed 2022 murder-for-hire plot to assassinate human rights activist Masih Alinejad in Brooklyn. The charges, announced by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, involve members of an Iranian intelligence network. Alinejad, an Iranian-American journalist and activist, has been a vocal critic of Iran's repression of women. The plot has previously led to charges against members of an Eastern European criminal organization with ties to Iran.