<\/p>\n
Written by\u00a0Mansoureh Galestan<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a016 January 2020.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, an agent of the Iranian regime, Ahmadreza Doostdar, was sentenced to more than three years in prison on the charge of espionage against Iranian\u00a0<\/span>opposition<\/span>, the\u00a0People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran<\/a>\u00a0(PMOI, Mujahedin-e Khalq,\u00a0MEK<\/a>).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Doostdar<\/a>, a dual Iranian-U.S. citizen, was charged in August 2018 by surveilling<\/span>\u00a0the MEK\u2019s members and supporters and gathering information.\u00a0<\/span>Another\u00a0<\/span>agent<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>identified as\u00a0<\/span>Majid\u00a0<\/span>Ghorbani<\/span>, was also charged with serving as an illegal agent of Iran in connection with the covert surveillance.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As the FBI’s\u00a0<\/span>surveillance<\/span>\u00a0subject,\u00a0<\/span>Doostdar<\/span>\u00a0was<\/span>\u00a0observed walking slowly, reviewing his surroundings and looking into cars and the reflection of store windows. He took circuitous routes to meetings, changing his clothes beforehand, employing an approach that bore hallmarks of \u201cintelligence tradecraft,\u201d an FBI agent wrote in 2018.<\/span>\u00a0These sign<\/span>s indicate he was<\/span>\u00a0a\u00a0<\/span>trained agent<\/span>\u00a0of the regime\u2019s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS<\/a>).\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Both men pleaded guilty last year, with\u00a0<\/span>Doostdar<\/span>\u00a0admitting to charges that he served as an agent of\u00a0<\/span>the\u00a0<\/span>Iran<\/span>ian regime<\/span>\u00a0without notifying the U.S. attorney general.\u00a0<\/span>Ghorbani<\/span>, who pleaded guilty to a single charge of providing services to\u00a0<\/span>the regime<\/span>\u00a0in violation of U.S. sanctions, was sentenced Wednesday to 30 months in prison.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe sentences, in this case, illustrate the high cost to those who act as agents of the Iranian government in the United States or provide services that benefit the government of Iran, especially when those activities target the free speech and peaceful assembly rights of people in the United States,\u201d Jessie Liu, the U.S. attorney for D.C., said in a statement.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In a two-hour hearing before U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman of the District of Columbia, prosecutor Jocelyn Ballantine said\u00a0<\/span>Doostdar<\/span>\u00a0had recruited\u00a0<\/span>Ghorbani<\/span>\u00a0to photograph and identify MEK\u00a0<\/span>supporters and\u00a0<\/span>members in the U.S., with the goal of disrupting the group. Ballantine said the Iranian government has a record of \u201chorrible acts of violence\u201d against MEK, adding that the photographs provided information that could help Iran target the group\u2019s members.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The court verdict against these two terrorists came just weeks after a U.S. drone strike in Iraq killed\u00a0Qassim Soleimani<\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>the commander of the\u00a0<\/span>Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force. He was in charge of terrorist attacks against the MEK in Iraq.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Iranian regime has been targeting its dissidents<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0including\u00a0<\/span>members and supporters of\u00a0<\/span>the MEK and\u00a0National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)<\/a><\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0around the world\u00a0<\/span>in\u00a0<\/span>the past four decades.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In June 2018, the regime\u2019s so-called \u201cDiplomat\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Assadollah<\/span>\u00a0Assadi<\/span><\/a>, along with three other terrorists, were arrested in France, Belgium and Germany in a coordinated operation, for attempting to bomb the NCRI\u2019s annual \u201cFree Iran\u201d gathering in Paris. This event was attended by hundreds of American and European dignitaries, and the NCRI\u2019s president-elect,\u00a0Mrs. Maryam Rajavi.\u00a0<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"