A member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is facing criminal charges in New York after allegedly plotting to kill a human rights activist that has long been a thorn in the side of the mullahs at Tehran.

The man, identified as Rullollah Bazghandi, was indicted along with three others for allegedly trying to carry out a murder plot against a journalist and Iranian opposition activist, Masih Alinejad, who has been living in exile at New York City since 2009. 

Ms. Alinejad was not named in the indictment but confirmed to the news service that she was the intended target.

Mr. Bazghandi served as a brigadier general and was once the chief of the Revolutionary Guard’s counterintelligence department. He was charged along with three other Iranians — Fnu Lnu, also known as Haj Taher, Hossein Sedighi, and Seyed Mohammad Forouzan — with murder-for-hire, money-laundering, and sanctions evasion.

“Today’s indictment makes plain that the Iranian regime for years has been behind a violent campaign to stalk, intimidate, and arrange the killing of an American dissident on U.S. soil for bravely speaking up for the rights of the Iranian people,” an Assistant Attorney General, Matthew G. Olsen, said of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “The Department is committed to exposing and holding accountable those in Tehran who believe they can hide their hand in carrying out such reprehensible activities.”

According to the indictment, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, part of the U.S. Department of Treasury, alleges that in April 2023, Mr. Bazghandi was involved in multiple plots to take out journalists, Israeli nationals, and others who were deemed enemies of the state of Iran. 

He also participated in the detention of foreign prisoners held in Iran and took part in counterintelligence operations in Syria.

Mr. Bazghandi is currently not in custody in America.