Ahmadreza Mohammadi-Doostdar, 38, a dual American-Iranian citizen, and Majid Ghorbani, 59, an Iranian citizen who resides in California, were charged in the indictment with conducting the surveillance on behalf of Iran, according to a statement by the Justice Department. Both men were arrested on August 9.

The indictment alleges that Doostdar travelled from Iran to the US in July 2017 to gather intelligence on entities that the Regime considers to be its enemies, which includes interests related to Israeli and Jewish interests or those associated with the Iranian Resistance.

The Justice Department said that Doostdar conducted surveillance of the Rohr Chabad House – an ultraorthodox Jewish facility in Chicago – and photographed its security features.

While Ghorbani attended a MEK rally in New York in September 2017, which was held to protest the Iranian Regime, and photographed the participants. These photographs, along with handwritten notes about the participants, were passed onto Doostdar, for which Ghorbani was paid about $2,000.

The Justice Department said that this evidence was found in Ghorbani’s luggage at a US airport as he was returning to Iran in December 2017.

In May, Ghorbani attended the MEK-affiliated Iran Freedom Convention for Human Rights in Washington, where he again photographed speakers and attendees. The Justice Department said that Ghorbani last spoke to Doostdar to discuss how to secretly deliver the information to the Iranian mullahs.

Other spying plots

Of course, this is far from the first time that the Iranian Regime has been found spying on Iranian dissidents in the West. Earlier this year, there were numerous reports of the Regime using malware-infected apps to spy on messages between Iranian dissidents and their families in Iran, during a time of great chaos in the country, or trying to entrap foreign journalists in a London café.

In early August, an Iranian diplomat was accused of running a web of spies across Europe with the aims of targeting opposition groups, carrying out targeted assassinations, and even boosting Iran’s missile arsenal.

This diplomat is Asdollah Assadi, who is currently being held on terror charges in Germany, after attempting to bomb the MEK’s Free Iran gathering on June 30 in Paris. The Vienna-based diplomat hired three mercenaries to carry out the bombing.