In the video: a couple of bloggers who danced in Tehran were sent to ten years in prison (documentation on social networks according to Section 27 A of the Copyright Law)
Iran is trying to recruit criminal gangs to harm regime opponents in Britain and the West - this was reported today (Sunday) in the British "Times" newspaper.
According to the report, security officials are aware of efforts by Tehran's intelligence services to recruit members of criminal organizations in Britain in order to attack Iranian expatriates.
This follows the words of the head of the kingdom's internal security services (MI5), who said that the Islamic Republic tried to kidnap or murder British residents in at least ten cases last year.
At the same time, Iranian regime opponents living in London were warned of Iran's intentions by the counter-terrorism unit in light of Tehran's efforts to silence the demonstrations against human rights violations in its territory.
Due to the Western sanctions and the increasing surveillance of the intelligence services, Iran has difficulty deploying its agents on the territory of Great Britain and the Western countries.
Instead, it hires the services of "thugs" and thus reserves for itself a possible space of denial in the event of an assassination or injury to one of the exiled opponents of the regime.
One of the most notable recent cases occurred in the United States.
Last month, indictments were filed against three members of a criminal organization from Eastern Europe who tried to murder Masih Alinejad, an Iranian human rights activist who lives in the United States and holds American citizenship.
One of the members of the cell was found near her home in New York armed with a Kalashnikov rifle, and is accused of being employed by Tehran through one of his colleagues in the Czech Republic.
In Germany, police suspect that Iran employed the leader of the Hells Angels gang to plan terrorist attacks against two synagogues in November.
That same month, employees of the Iranian opposition channel Iran International were warned by UK authorities of a "credible and immediate threat" to their lives and police deployed armored vehicles outside the channel's London offices.
"Iran is a direct threat to Britain."
A demonstration against the regime in Tehran in London, last month (Photo: Reuters)
A few days later, the head of MI5, Ken McCullum, gave a speech in which he described Iran as a "state actor that often turns to terrorism".
According to him, "Iran is a direct threat to Britain through its aggressive intelligence services, especially in its efforts to kidnap or even kill Britons or people living in Britain who are perceived as enemies of the regime. We have witnessed at least ten such potential threats since January."
He refused to detail the methods used by Iran, but according to estimates its intelligence services have demonstrated a clear intention to cooperate with criminal organizations in order to harm the rival in the kingdom and elsewhere.
The "Sunday Times" recently revealed that hundreds of Iranian dissidents and activists in Britain received leaflets from the counter-terrorism unit that included advice on how they could defend themselves.
Potkin Azarmar, a journalist and documentary filmmaker living in London, was warned by police that Iran had "changed its ways".
According to him, "They told me that Iran has not carried out assassinations for some time, but that now it hires criminal gangs as its emissaries."
He added that he had been warned that the attacks could be carried out through violence on the road or by being pushed from behind on a train platform.
A London police spokesman told The Times that it was continuing its work against "potential threats from Iran against some people living in the UK".
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was remotely operated by Tehran.
Khaled Mahadev outside Alinejad's house in Brooklyn, last year (photo: screenshot, security cameras)
Lisa Monaco, the Deputy Attorney General of the United States, described the alliance between Iran and criminal gangs as a "dangerous threat to national security."
Last month, Washington revealed details of the plot to assassinate Alinejad, the exiled Iranian activist, in New York.
Alinejad, 46, previously lived and studied in Britain and is one of the most prominent critics of the regime.
She leads the campaign encouraging women and girls to oppose the dress code that requires them to cover their heads with a hijab, and supported the recent protests that broke out following the death of the young Kurdish woman who was arrested by the morality police.
The prosecution in the United States claimed in court that Iran hired the services of criminals from Eastern Europe to murder Alinejad in her Brooklyn home last summer.
The leader of the gang, Rafat Amirov, who holds Azeri and Russian citizenship and lives in Tehran, is accused of taking on "the task of harming the victim".
Iranian journalist Alinejad (Photo: Reuters)
Khaled Mehdayev, a 24-year-old Azeri living in New York, was supposed to purchase a rifle that he described to his friends as a "war machine."
He was instructed to follow the home of the Iranian activist before the assassination attempt, and told another senior member of the gang that he was "at the scene of the crime" on July 24 last year.
"We've blocked it from both sides; it will be a show when she leaves the house," Mehdayev said, according to the US lawsuit.
The plan to assassinate Aliinjad was thwarted after she suspected something lurking outside her house and fled from it.
The police arrested Mahadive on suspicion of a traffic violation, and found a rifle, 66 bullets, more than a thousand dollars in cash and a ski mask in his car.
In addition to Mehdayev, two other people are accused of trying to assassinate her - his gang member who was arrested in the Czech Republic and is facing extradition to the United States, and also the gang leader Amirov who was taken by an unknown route from Iran to the United States.
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