Two Individuals Arrested in the U.S. on Charges of Espionage for Iran

The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Monday, August 29, that two Iranian men have been arrested on charges of "espionage" for Tehran in the United States, including spying on a Jewish center and gathering information on supporters of the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran (MEK). According to the statement from the U.S. Department of Justice, Ahmadreza Mohammadi Doostdar, a 38-year-old dual Iranian-American citizen, and Majid Ghorbani, a 59-year-old Iranian citizen residing in the U.S., were arrested on August 9 in California. The indictment against the two states that they collected information for the Iranian government. The U.S. Department of Justice says that Ahmadreza Mohammadi Doostdar traveled from Iran to the U.S. in July 2017 to gather information on entities considered enemies of the Iranian government, including Israeli interests and Jews in the U.S. and individuals associated with the MEK. According to the indictment, Mr. Doostdar took photographs of the security dimensions of an Orthodox Jewish center called "Chabad House Rohr" in Chicago in 2017. The statement from the Department of Justice also mentions that Majid Ghorbani attended an MEK rally on September 20, 2017, in New York, where he took photographs of the event and provided them to Ahmadreza Doostdar in exchange for $2,000. The indictment states that Mr. Doostdar traveled to California in December to receive this information from Mr. Ghorbani. The statement adds that Majid Ghorbani also participated in an MEK conference titled "Iran Freedom Convention for Human Rights and Democracy" in Washington in May of this year, and ten days later, Ahmadreza Mohammadi Doostdar contacted him to discuss how to obtain the collected information. The U.S. Department of Justice says that Majid Ghorbani traveled to Iran in March and April of this year and provided his information to the authorities of the Islamic Republic, with the task of infiltrating the MEK. The news of the arrest of these two individuals comes amid reports that last month an Iranian diplomat in Germany was accused of instructing a couple to carry out an "attack" on the annual MEK conference in the outskirts of Paris. In this context, the German Attorney General stated that "Asadollah A" is accused of commissioning an "explosive attack" on the MEK conference to a couple residing in Antwerp, Belgium. In response, the Islamic Republic of Iran has described this case as a "scenario" to undermine Iran's relations with Europe.