94Ha Viewpoint
The United States has charged an Afghan man who is currently at large, accusing him of being linked to a plot with Iran to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump.
According to Reuters, the U.S. Department of Justice released a statement on Friday, November 8th, stating that the attempted assassination was ordered by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The 51-year-old man involved, Farhad Shakeri, was tasked with planning the operation to assassinate Trump on October 7th.
Shakeri, aged 51 and an Afghan citizen residing in Tehran, is an operative of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. He immigrated to the United States as a child, but was deported around 2008 for robbery charges. Prosecutors believe Shakeri is currently within Iran’s borders.
The U.S. Department of Justice stated that Iran conspired to assassinate Trump as a retaliation for the killing of the Iranian commander, Soleimani, by Trump’s orders during his first term as President in 2020.
Additionally, two New York residents, Carlisle Rivera and Jonathan Loadholt, who Shakeri met in prison, are also charged with aiding Shakeri in plotting the assassination of an Iranian-American citizen in New York. This Iranian-American citizen is said to have openly criticized the Iranian government and was previously a target for murder. The prosecutors did not disclose the identity of the target, but the description matches that of the Iranian-American female journalist, Masih Alinejad.
Alinejad had criticized Iran’s requirement for women to wear headscarves. In 2021, four Iranians were charged with allegedly planning to kidnap her, and in 2022, a man carrying a rifle who was loitering outside her home was arrested. Rivera and Loadholt are currently in custody awaiting trial.
