The US Treasury Department on 3rd September has imposed sanctions on Iranian intelligence officials who tried to kidnap an American citizen of Iranian origin in New York and were involved in other similar operations abroad.
“The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today imposed sanctions on four Iranian intelligence officers who persecuted a US citizen in the United States, as well as Iranian dissidents in other countries, as part of a large-scale campaign to silence critics of the Iranian government.” in the Ministry of Finance.
It is specified that the network of Iranian operatives who prepared the abduction of an American journalist and human rights activist and persecuted dissidents in the United States, Britain, Canada and the UAE was led by a senior intelligence official Alirez Shahvarogi Farahani, born in 1970. The Iranian intelligence operation failed, and in July, the United States filed charges in the case.
“The Iranian government’s plans to abduct people are an additional example of its ongoing attempts to silence the voices of critics wherever they may be. The persecution of dissidents abroad demonstrates that the government’s repression goes far beyond Iran, ”said Andrea Gaki, OFAC’s director.
As previously reported, Iranian intelligence tried to kidnap a journalist in New York and activist of Iranian descent, now a US citizen. They used the services of a private detective to monitor the victim. Iranian special services planned to use speedboats to transport the victim to Venezuela.