WASHINGTON: The US Department of Justice has said that an Iranian citizen has been indicted for his involvement in a plot by the Revolutionary Guards to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump.
According to the Reuters news agency, the Department of Justice said in a statement that Farhad Shakri informed law enforcement agencies that he had been assigned responsibility on October 7, 2024 and had also been provided with a plan to kill Trump.
Farhad Shakri allegedly told law enforcement that he did not have a plan to execute Trump during the timeframe given by the Revolutionary Guards, the statement said.
The US Department of Justice said that Farhad Shakri, a 51-year-old Iranian national, is a key member of the Revolutionary Guards in Tehran and had moved to the US as a child and was deported in 2008 on a robbery conviction.
Farhad Shakri is a fugitive and is believed to be in Iran, the prosecutor said.
According to the report, two New Yorkers, Carlisle Rivera and Jonathan Ludholt, have also been indicted for helping Farhad Shakri plan to kill an American citizen of Iranian origin whom Farhad Shakri had met in prison.
He said that the citizen who was planned to be killed was a strong critic of the Iranian government and that there had been attempts to kill him before, but the prosecutor did not reveal the identity of the said citizen.
The prosecutor did not identify the citizen but pointed to Masih Ali Nijad, a social activist and journalist who has criticized Iran’s headscarfing law.
In 2021, the US indicted 4 Iranian nationals for kidnapping them, and in 2022, a man with a rifle was arrested outside their home.
Carlisle Rivera and Jonathan Ludholt remain in custody and their trial is also pending.
