Leonhard Foeger/Reuters
Two Iranian men were indicted on Monday for spying on a Jewish facility and Iranian opposition gatherings on behalf of the Iranian government, according to a Justice Department press release. 38-year-old Ahmadreza Mohammadi-Doostdar and 59-year old Majid Ghorbani were arrested on August 9 for conducting surveillance on “entities considered to be enemies of the Iranian government.” The DOJ alleges Doostdar photographed the security features of a Chicago Jewish facility called Rohr Chabad House in July 2017. It also accuses Ghorbani of attending a rally for Iranian militant opposition group Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) in New York and “taking photographs of the participants”–which he gave to Doostdar for $2,000. Airport security found the photos from the rally with “handwritten notes about the participants” in Ghorbani’s luggage while he was travelling to Iran in late 2017. Ghorbani also allegedly attended MEK-affiliated Iran Freedom Convention for Human Rights in May, where he took photos of “speakers and attendees.” He then spoke to Doostdar about “clandestine methods” to deliver the information back to Iran. Iran considers MEK to be a terror group who seeks to overthrow current leadership. The U.S. designated MEK as a terrorist organization in 1997 but removed it from the list in 2012.