U.S. charges Iran Revolutionary Guard official in alleged plot to kill rights activist in New York

NEW YORK —  An official with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has been charged in a plot to kill an Iranian American author and dissident on U.S. soil, according to a rewritten indictment filed Tuesday.

Ruhollah Bazghandi and three other men were charged in the updated indictment against those accused of trying to kill Masih Alinejad. Bazghandi is not in custody.

The Iranian 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 Associated Press that she was the intended target.

Alinejad fled Iran after the country’s disputed 2009 presidential election.

Bazghandi 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 U.S. Department of 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, along with his participation in the detention of foreign prisoners held in Iran and involvement in operations in Syria by the Revolutionary Guard’s counterintelligence department, the indictment noted.

The Iranian activist and journalist has been living in exile in New York. Her identity is not in court papers, but she confirmed she was the intended target.