U.S. charges Iranian Revolutionary Guards senior official in plot to kill human rights activist

Federal prosecutors in New York City revealed on Tuesday that a top Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran and three others linked to the Iranian government have been charged in an alleged plot to assassinate a human-rights activist in Brooklyn in 2022.

The activist, Masih Alinejad, is an outspoken critic of the Iranian regime's treatment of women. The plot to assassinate him was interrupted by U.S. authorities. 

The official, Ruhollah Bazghandi, is a brigadier general with the Revolutionary Guards. The U.S. government said he works with the counterintelligence department. He was previously sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department.

“Today’s action targets senior officials and security services in Iran and Russia that are responsible for the hostage-taking or wrongful detention of U.S. nationals abroad,” Brian Nelson, the under secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said last year. “We are committed to bringing home wrongfully detained U.S. nationals and acting against foreign threats to the safety of U.S. nationals abroad.”