September 21, 2018
Two Iranian men have been indicted in the US on charges of spying for Tehran by targeting supporters of the Mojahedin-e Khalq around the US and a Jewish building in Chicago.
Ahmadreza Mohammadi-Doostdar, 38, a dual US-Iranian citizen who lived in Tehran before his arrest, and Majid Ghorbani, 59, an Iranian citizen living in California with a US green card, were arrested separately August 9 in Chicago and Los Angeles.
The indictment alleges Doostdar traveled from Iran to the United States in July 2017 to collect intelligence about entities considered to be enemies of the Iranian government, including Israeli and Jewish interests as well as people associated with the Mojahedin-e Khalq.
The documents filed with the court state that a wiretap of Ghorbani recorded him as saying of one Mojahedin member, “M—F needs one, one shot.”
The Justice Department said Doostdar conducted surveillance in July 2017 of an ultra orthodox Jewish facility in Chicago, the Rohr Chabad House, including photographing the security features. Rohr Chabad houses are located at many universities around the US and serve as social centers for Jewish students. They are not known as hotbeds of Zionist activity.
Shortly before taking photos at the Rohr Chabad House, Doostdar visited the Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago. The museum house many cuneiform tablets found at Persepolis that Iran says belong to Iran. The Oriental Institute also says they belong to Iran. And the institute recently won a court suit against American “victims of terrorism” trying to seize the tablets.
Ghorbani attended the Mojahedin rally outside the UN in New York September 20, 2017, to protest the presence of President Rohani, taking photographs of the participants, which he later passed on to Doostdar and for which he was paid about $2,000.
The photos, many with handwritten notes about the participants, were found in Ghorbani’s luggage at a US airport as he was returning to Iran in December 2017, the Justice Department said.
Ghorbani also attended the Mojahedin-affiliated Iran Freedom Convention for Human Rights in Washington in May, where he again appeared to photograph speakers and attendees, the department said. He later spoke with Doostdar to discuss clandestine methods to deliver the information to Iran, it said.
The FBI recorded their conversation during a car ride in which Doostdar instructed Ghorbani to mix his photos of the Mojahedin on a flash drive with family photos to avoid arousing any suspicions of airport baggage searchers. But Doostdar said there was nothing to worry about. “I noticed they don’t search these at all. I put it right in front of them. They didn’t even open it,” he said.
The indictment charges both men with knowingly acting as agents of a foreign government without first registering as a foreign agent, as required by law, providing services to Iran in violation of sanctions that have been in effect for decades, and conspiracy.
Ghorbani arrived in the United States in 1995 and settled in Costa Mesa, California, where he still lives. The court documents said he has worked at a local Persian restaurant for the past 20 years—a restaurant the documents said is frequented by Mojahedin members.
The criminal complaint said Doostdar, although a US citizen, has been living for some time in Tehran. The first record of the two men meeting dated from July 2017.
