Iran International
New bipartisan legislation aimed at increasing the penalties for crimes committed by foreign adversaries targets Iran’s government and the hired criminals it allegedly employs to kill opponents on American soil.
The Deterrence Act is a response to Iran’s plot to kill President elect-Donald Trump and other Iran-led murder-for-hire attempts which US investigators have described in lengthy criminal complaints in recent months.
The bill increases criminal penalties for those who commit or attempt certain crimes on behalf of foreign adversaries, which already come with increased prison sentences.
“Foreign adversaries like Iran are working with criminal organizations in the United States to kill people on American soil,” co-sponsor Senator Maggie Hassan, a Democrat from New Hampshire, said in a statement.
Hassan added she would work with colleagues to pass this legislation as quickly as possible to send a message to Iran's rulers.
Earlier this month, the Department of Justice (DOJ) disclosed an Iranian-led plot to assassinate Donald Trump, charging a man they said had been tasked by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to kill the Republican candidate on the campaign trail.
Farhad Shakeri, an Afghan national was identified by the FBI as an Iranian government asset who moved to America as a young child but was deported after being imprisoned on robbery charges. He allegedly hired individuals he met while in prison for the alleged plots, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Manhattan.
Two other men were arrested on charges that Shakeri recruited them to surveil and kill prominent Iranian- American human rights activist and journalist Masih Alinejad. According to US law enforcement, Alinejad has been the victim of several Iranian murder-for-hire plots thwarted by the FBI on US soil.
Another co-sponsor, Iowa Republican Joni Ernst, said Iran has enjoyed years of “appeasement.”
“Now that the regime has become so emboldened that it even attempted to assassinate President Trump, Senator Hassan and I are taking action to ensure any bad actor thinks twice before working with our adversaries or messing with any of our citizens,” Ernst said in a statement.
Florida Democrat Representative Moskowitz, another co-sponsor who is part of a bipartisan task force investigating the assassination attempts against Donald Trump, said he is deeply disturbed by Iran's reported active attempts at targeting Americans on US soil.
“We need to send a message that any person who works with a foreign government, especially a state sponsor of terrorism like Iran, will face severe consequences for harming Americans,” he said in a statement.
