Two Iranians Charged With Spying On American Jewish Targets

Rohr Chabad Center, Chicago Image by Google Maps

By Alyssa Fisher August 21, 2018

Two Iranians who collected information on Israeli and Jewish targets in the United States were charged Monday with spying for Tehran, The Times of Israel reported.

Ahmadreza Mohammadi-Doostdar, 38, a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen, and Majid Ghorbani, 59, an Iranian citizen and resident of California, were arrested Aug. 9.

According to the indictment released by the Justice Department, Mohammadi-Doostdar traveled to the U.S. from Iran around July 2017, with the aim of gathering material on alleged opponents of the Iranian regime. This included Israelis and American Jews, as well as those linked to The People’s Mujahedeen (MEK), an Iranian opposition organization that the United States considered a terror group until 2012.

Mohammadi-Doostdar is accused of setting up surveillance and taking photos at several Jewish centers in Chicago, including the Hillel Center and the Rohr Chabad House, on or around July 21, 2017, according to the indictment.

Mohammadi-Doostdar met Ghorbani a trip to California, the indictment reads. Two months later, Ghorbani flew to New York for one day to attend a MEK rally, where he took photos. When Mohammadi-Doostdar returned to California, Ghorbani mentioned trying to “penetrate” the group, while Mohammadi-Doostdar spoke of being directed to collect the information, according to FBI recordings.

This March and April, Ghorbani went to Iran to brief government officials on MEK and received a list of “taskings,” according to the indictment. In May, he attended the MEK-supported Iran Freedom Convention for Human Rights in Washington and took more photos.

Both men were charged with acting as unregistered agents of the Iranian government and violating sanctions, The Times of Israel reported.

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO