US charges IRGC official in alleged plot to kill Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad

The murder-for-hire and money laundering charges against Ruhollah Bazghandi and three other Iranian citizens were revealed on Tuesday as part of a revised indictment laying out the alleged scheme.

The Justice Department did not name the target of the purported plot, but Iranian American journalist and activist Masih Alinejad confirmed that she was the potential victim.

Last year, the Justice Department charged several people with trying to kill Alinejad. One of the suspects – Khalid Mehdiyev – had been arrested outside her house with a rifle.

According to the indictment, Bazghandi and other Iranian officials contracted members of an Eastern European criminal organisation to kill Alinejad.

Bazghandi and the three other Iranian citizens, who are based in Iran, remain at large, US authorities claimed.

The Justice Department added Bazghandi is “an IRGC Brigadier General and has previously served as chief of an IRGC Intelligence Organization (IRGC-IO)”.

In a statement on Tuesday, US Attorney General Merrick Garland stated: “We will not tolerate efforts by an authoritarian regime like Iran to undermine the fundamental rights guaranteed to every American.”

Alinejad has been an outspoken critic of the Iranian government.

In 2021, US prosecutors also charged four Iranians, alleged to be intelligence officers, with plotting to abduct Alinejad.

Tehran dismissed allegations of involvement in the kidnapping plot at that time as “ridiculous and baseless”.