With Inputs From ANI.
The US Department of Justice on Friday charged an Iranian citizen in connection with Donald Trump’s assassination before the US Presidential election. It is said that he was tapped by Iran to allegedly assassinate Donald Trump before the polls. He has been charged as an asset of the Iranian regime who was tasked by the regime to direct a network of criminal associates to further Iran’s assassination plots against its targets, including President-elect Donald Trump, according to United States Department of Justice statement.
Who Is Farhad Shakeri?
The accused has been identified as Farhad Shakeri, 51-Year-old Afghan national. Shakeri was deported from the United States in 2008 after serving years in prison for robbery case. He had served 14 years in prison for robbery before his release in 2008. Shakeri is an Iranian military and counterintelligence agency (IRGC) asset who immigrated to the United States as a child and was deported in or about 2008 after serving 14 years in prison for a robbery conviction.
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Reportedly, in recent months, Shakeri had used a network of criminal associates he met in prison in the United States to supply the IRGC with operatives to conduct surveillance and assassinations of IRGC targets.
He has been accused for participation in an extensive assassination conspiracy on behalf of Tehran alongside Jonathan Loadholt, 36, of Staten Island, and Carlisle Rivera, 49, of Brooklyn, also known as Pop. Shakeri met Carlisle Rivera when he was moved to Beacon facility in 2005. According to New York Department of Corrections records, Shakeri’s parole supervision had ended in 2015, but in 2019, he was detained in Sri Lanka in connection with the seizure of 92 kilograms of heroin.
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He was arrested and imprisoned for his crimes, but he remains free in Iran.
US Agencies Reaction On Farhad Shakeri
ANI quoted FBI Director Christopher Wray, who stated that “The charges announced today expose Iran’s continued brazen attempts to target U.S. citizens, including President-elect Donald Trump, other government leaders and dissidents who criticize the regime in Tehran.”
“We have also charged and arrested two individuals who we allege were recruited as part of that network to silence and kill, on U.S. soil, an American journalist who has been a prominent critic of the regime. We will not stand for the Iranian regime’s attempts to endanger the American people and America’s national security,” stated the United States Department of Justice.
US Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York said, “Actors directed by the Government of Iran continue to target our citizens, including President-elect Trump, on US soil and abroad. This has to stop.”
Notably, ahead of the 2024 US presidential elections, a reported gunfire incident disrupted former President Donald Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
