‘DOWN WITH AMERICA’

Prosecutors Charge Iranian Teen With Pro-Soleimani Cyber Vandalism

Indictment alleges Behzad Mohammadzadeh hacked 51 sites with pictures of the Iranian flag and Qassem Soleimani after the U.S. killed the general in January 2020.

Federal prosecutors in Massachusetts have charged two men with defacing dozens of websites with pro-Iranian messages in the wake of the U.S. killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. An indictment filed on Sept. 3 alleges that Behzad Mohammadzadeh, a 19-year-old Iranian hacker who goes by the handle Mrb3hz4d, worked with a Palestianian cyber criminal, Marwan Abusrour (Mrwn007), to hack and vandalize at least 51 websites with pro-Iranian and pro-Soleimani messages after his death in January 2020. The two men, who remain abroad, allegedly “defaced those websites by replacing their content with pictures of the late General Soleimani against a background of the Iranian flag” along with “Down with America” messages.