Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Friday denied a US Department of Justice (DOJ) report alleging that an Iranian official planned to assassinate the president-elect. Donald TrumpThe claims were called “totally baseless and unacceptable”.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ismail Baghai said in a statement carried by Iranian media that the DOJ allegations were “part of a malicious conspiracy by anti-Zionist and anti-Iranian circles aimed at further complicating issues between the US and Iran,” according to a Fox News report.
Also Read: Who is Farhad Shakeri, the main planner of Iran’s conspiracy to kill President-elect Trump?
“Iran has been accused of similar circumstances in the past, which have been strongly denied and proven to be false,” Bagai added, as quoted by Fox News.
The DOJ filed a criminal complaint in federal court in New York City on Friday alleging an alleged conspiracy orchestrated by an unnamed official within Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The complaint alleges the officer directed Farhad Sakeri, 51, to “focus on the surveillance and eventual assassination of former United States President Donald J. Trump.”
Shakeri, who is believed to be living in Iran, is absconding. The DOJ alleges that Sakeri, who immigrated to the U.S. as a child and was deported in 2008 for robbery, was tasked with planning the Oct. 7, 2024, murder.
The complaint also alleges that Saqeri hired two New York men, Carlisle Rivera, 49, and Jonathan Lodholt, 36, of Iranian origin, to spy on and kill them for $1. The DOJ identifies the man as journalist Masih Alinzad, an outspoken critic of the Iranian regime.
Also Read: The US Department of Justice has filed charges of alleged Iranian conspiracy
All three men — Shakeri, Rivera and Loadholt — are facing possible prison sentences of 10 to 20 years, charged with murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and money laundering conspiracy. Shakeri also faces an additional charge of conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
(TagsToTranslate)Murder-for-hire Accusations