U.S. Court Rejects Bail Request for Iranian Citizen Accused of Espionage

A judge in Washington on Tuesday, August 21, rejected the bail request for Majid Ghorbani, a 59-year-old Iranian citizen accused of spying for Iran.

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Ahmadrez Mohammadi Doostdar, 38, with dual Iranian-American citizenship, and Majid Ghorbani, 59, an Iranian citizen, have been arrested on charges of “espionage” for Tehran in the United States, including surveillance of a Jewish center and gathering information from Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) supporters.

At Majid Ghorbani’s first court hearing presided over by Michael Harvey, the prosecutor requested a 75-year prison sentence for the defendant.

Reports indicate that the defendant’s attorney requested the court judge to allow his client temporary release until the trial, considering that his client’s family lives in America.

However, Judge Michael Harvey rejected the request for Majid Ghorbani’s temporary release, stating that because he is accused of spying for another country, he cannot approve temporary release for the defendant.

The other defendant in this case is Ahmadrez Mohammadi Doostdar, who is scheduled to be tried in a Chicago court.

According to yesterday’s statement from the Department of Justice, John Demers, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; Jesse K. Liu, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia (Washington); and Michael McGarity, Head of National Security at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), presented charges against these two individuals.

In the Department of Justice statement, it is stated that Majid Ghorbani, by attending a Mujahedin-e Khalq gathering on September 20, 2017, in New York, took photographs of the gathering and provided them to Ahmadrez Doostdar in exchange for two thousand dollars.

In the indictment against these two individuals, it is stated that Mr. Doostdar traveled to California in December to receive this information from Mr. Ghorbani.

The statement added that Majid Ghorbani also participated in a Mujahedin-e Khalq conference titled “Iran Freedom Convention for Human Rights and Democracy” in May of this year in Washington, and ten days later, Ahmadrez Mohammadi Doostdar contacted him and discussed how to obtain the gathered information.

Mr. Ghorbani is accused of having a duty to infiltrate the Mujahedin-e Khalq organization. In this indictment, it is stated that he traveled to Iran in March and April of this year and provided his information to Islamic Republic authorities.

Ahmadrez Mohammadi Doostdar is also accused of taking photographs of the security aspects of an Orthodox Jewish center called “Chabad House Rohr” in Chicago in 2017 while conducting surveillance.

However, Ahmadrez Mohammadi Doostdar’s attorney told ABC 7 News yesterday: “The charges against Mr. Doostdar are politically motivated and have been brought forward on the eve of a new approach by the U.S. President toward Iran.”

In this regard, the Chicago Tribune reported that Ahmadrez Mohammadi Doostdar’s brother is an assistant professor at the University of Chicago in Islamic Studies.

Previously, in 2014, Mansour Arbabsiar, an Iranian-American who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to America in a New York court, was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Source: Radio Farda