US Department of Justice: Two Detainees Confessed to Spying for Iran
Two Iranian citizens who have been imprisoned in the United States for over a year have confessed to spying for the Islamic Republic. The two individuals consist of one Iranian citizen and one dual national, whose court hearings have not yet been held.
The United States Department of Justice announced in a statement dated Tuesday, November 5 (Aban 14) that Ahmadresa Mohammadi Doostdar, a 39-year-old Iranian-American citizen, and Majid Ghorbani, a 60-year-old Iranian citizen, have confessed to charges of cooperating with the intelligence apparatus of the Islamic Republic.
Mohammadi Doostdar, a resident of Iran, confessed during interrogation that he traveled to the United States three times from July 2017 until his arrest in December of last year.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents monitored Mohammadi Doostdar during his first trip and observed him taking photographs of the “Hillel Center” and “Chabad House,” which belong to Jewish organizations near the University of Chicago.
He then traveled to California and met with Mohammad Ghorbani, who resides there. According to the complaint filed by prosecutors, this was the first meeting between the two individuals.
Based on surveillance of telephone conversations between the two, the FBI states that Mohammadi Doostdar relayed Ghorbani’s assignments to him. On this basis, Ghorbani flew to New York two months after this meeting for one day and photographed attendees at a gathering of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization.
According to the US Department of Justice, Doostdar confessed that Ghorbani expressed his willingness to work for the Islamic Republic’s intelligence apparatus following their first meeting.
The statement from the department noted that the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization gathering was legally permitted and held on September 20 in New York, with several American citizens also in attendance.
The statement quotes Jesse Liu, the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, saying that the Islamic Republic believed it could monitor government opponents and gather information about them by sending one of its agents to the United States and using an Iranian-born resident of the United States.
Photography and Information Gathering
Doostdar confessed that during his second trip to the United States, he met again with Ghorbani and received from him photographs and information about prominent figures who participated in the New York gathering. He stated that he paid Ghorbani $2,000.
According to the confessions made and findings of the FBI, Ghorbani also traveled to Washington in May 2018 to monitor participants in a Mujahedin-e Khalq gathering in the capital, and Doostdar instructed him in a telephone conversation on how to deliver the collected photographs and information to him in Iran.
The US Department of Justice states that acceptance of the charges and confession to spying for the Islamic Republic by the two mentioned defendants occurred on October 8 of the current year.
Mohammadi Doostdar’s court hearing is scheduled for December 17, and Ghorbani’s court hearing is scheduled for January 15 of next year. It appears that the confessions of these two defendants were made in agreement with the prosecutor and to obtain a reduction in their sentences.
Source: DW
