On Friday, American judicial authorities announced the indictment of an “agent of Iran” accused of having received orders from Tehran, which has denied, to organize assassination plans in the United States aimed in particular at Donald Trump. Here’s what we know.
Donald Trump in Tehran’s sights. A man living in Iran was indicted by American judicial authorities this Friday, November 8. The latter is accused of having received the order to organize an assassination plan targeting in particular the 47th President of the United States.
Farhad Shakeri, a 51-year-old Afghan who now lives in Iran after serving 14 years in prison in the United States for robbery, is suspected of having recruited common criminals for the Revolutionary Guards, the army ideology of the Islamic Republic, according to court documents.
For Merrick Garland, American Minister of Justice, “few actors in the world represent as serious a threat to the national security of the United States as Iran”. “This agent of the Iranian regime was tasked by the regime with leading a network of criminal accomplices to carry out Iran’s assassination plans against its targets, including President-elect Donald Trump,” he said. also explained, in a press release published this Friday.
Revealing phone interviews
Made public three days after the presidential election won by the Republican billionaire against Kamala Harris, the conclusions of the American justice system were based on telephone interviews between agents of the American federal police (FBI) and Farhad Shakeri. The latter wanted to negotiate a reduced sentence for a person incarcerated in the United States.
During these interviews, which took place between September 30 and this Thursday, November 7, the Afghan claimed to have received an instruction in September from a senior official of the Revolutionary Guards asking him to “concentrate on surveillance and , ultimately, the assassination of former President Donald Trump.
This official also allegedly asked him, on October 7, to present an assassination plan to him within seven days. Beyond this deadline, he explained to him that the project would be postponed until after the November 5 election, since he considered that Donald Trump would lose it and that it would therefore be easier to target him afterwards, always according to the same sources.
Accusations refuted by Iran
This Saturday, November 9, Iranian diplomacy rejected these accusations and judged “totally unfounded (…) the allegations according to which Iran is involved in an assassination attempt targeting former or current American officials”.
According to the US Department of Justice, the Islamic Republic has for years harbored a desire to retaliate for the death of Revolutionary Guards general Qassem Soleimani, killed on January 3, 2020 in Iraq in a drone strike ordered by Donald Trump during of his first term.
A journalist also targeted
Still according to the department, two Americans were also arrested this Thursday in connection with this case: Carlisle Rivera, 49, and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, both residents of New York City. They were indicted for planning the assassination of American journalist of Iranian origin Masih Alinejad, very critical of the Islamic Republic.
The latter, identified as “victim number 1”, is not named by name but described as having already been the target of assassination or kidnapping attempts sponsored by Tehran, which would correspond to the Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad.
Court documents reported plans to monitor “victim number 1” during a conference scheduled for February 15, 2024 at the University of Fairfield, in Connecticut (northeast).
In a video broadcast this Friday on social networks, Masih Alinejad confirmed that it was her and that she was one of the speakers at this conference, which was ultimately canceled. She said she was informed on February 15 by FBI agents of an “imminent threat” targeting her.
In October, American justice initiated proceedings against four Iranians, including a general of the Revolutionary Guards, for having sponsored a first plan to assassinate Masih Alinejad in New York in 2022.
