“The Department of Justice has indicted an asset of the Iranian regime, whom the regime instructed to operate a network of criminal associates to further plan assassinations in Iran against its targets, including President-elect Donald Trump,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. statement.
The Justice Department also indicted two other individuals allegedly recruited to kill an American journalist who was an outspoken critic of Iran.
The other men were identified by the Justice Department as Carlisle Rivera, also known as “Pop,” 49, of Brooklyn, and Jonathan Loadholt, 36, of Staten Island.
Both appeared in court in the Southern District of New York on Thursday and are being held pending trial.
Trump has faced two separate assassination attempts this year. In July, a gunman clipped his own ear after shooting the former president at a rally in Pennsylvania.
Then, in September, a man was arrested for pointing a rifle at Trump, who was playing golf on his course in West Palm Beach.
Mr. Shakeri was asked to develop a plan to kill Trump in seven days, the indictment alleges.
According to prosecutors, Mr. Shakeri told law enforcement that he did not intend to propose a scheme to kill Trump during that seven-day deadline, so Iranian Revolutionary Guard officials suspended the plan.
Mr. Shakeri said the Iranian government told him it would be easier to try to kill Trump after the election because they believed he would lose, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors described Mr. Shakeri as an Afghan national who came to the United States as a child. He was eventually deported around 2008 after spending 14 years in prison for robbery.
Prosecutors say the 51-year-old used a “network of criminal associates” from prison, including Mr Rivera and Mr Loadholt, to conduct surveillance on Iranian government facilities.
Mr. Shakeri promised Mr. Rivera and Mr. Loadholt $100,000 to kill an American journalist who reported on human rights abuses and corruption by the Iranian regime, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said the journalist, who has not been named, had been targeted in the past.
In addition to the American journalist and Trump, the indictment alleges that the Iranian government tried to kill two American businessmen of Jewish origin who lived in New York and who supported Israel on social media.
Mr. Shakeri also told prosecutors that his Iranian contacts asked him to plan the mass shooting of Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka in October 2024, a year after the Hamas attacks on Israel.
Mr Shakeri, Mr Rivera and Mr Loadholt were charged with murder for hire, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. They are also charged with conspiracy to launder money – which could lead to up to 20 years in prison – and conspiracy to commit murder.
