December 31, 2021
A Tennessee court has convicted Jahangir Shaffighi, 62, of rape and sexual battery of a pre-teen child three decades ago.
The District Attorney’s office of Knoxville, Tennessee, said Shaffighi was convicted November 10 of aggravated rape and aggravated sexual battery.
Shaffighi was a taekwondo instructor in 1992 and the victim was one of his students. While the victim was 10 and 11 years old, authorities said Shaffighi sexually assaulted the youth, whose gender was not released.
The abuse lasted for eight months, according to prosecutors, and the child talked about the abuse three months after stopping the taekwondo class.
The Knoxville Police Department arrested Shaffighi in 1994. He posted bond—but then flew out of the country and returned to Iran. In 2016, he apparently concluded time had given him cover and he flew back to the United States using his American passport. But when an immigration officer ran his passport through his computer, it showed Shaffighi was a wanted man and he was promptly arrested at the airport.
Shaffighi will be sentenced under Tennessee law as it stood in 1992 before a statute for child rape charges was enacted. So, they said he faces 15-25 years in prison for the aggravated rape count and 8-12 years for the aggravated sexual battery count.
He is set to appear in court for sentencing December 16.