Agents from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps recruited a drug dealer from the Republic of Georgia to murder a rabbi in Azerbaijan for $200,000, The Washington Post reported Saturday.
Azerbaijan’s security services foiled the plot in January, according to the report. The agents gave the drug dealer, Agil Aslanov, a photograph of the rabbi, who was born in Israel and run the activities of the Chabad movement in Azerbaijan, and specific instructions for carrying out the assassination, according to the report, which cited “Western and Middle Eastern” intelligence agencies.
Prior to the attempted assassination, Aslanov is said to have traveled to Iran for a meeting organized by Iranian national Mohammad Golkari, who has deep connections to criminal networks.
The attack reportedly also targeted an educational institution. Aslanov and his associate, Jeyhun Ismayilov, were arrested and charged with conspiring to carry out a terrorist act.
In its official statement, Azerbaijan’s State Security Service said the suspects “worked to collect information about a member of a religious community, and sent the location of his residence and workplace to a representative of a foreign special service agency via the appropriate mobile phone application.”
Speaking to the Washington Post, Segal said he had only discovered the assassination plot through local news reports and had been entirely unaware of any threat to his life.
“We live here peacefully. I walk on the streets here, and there is no fear,” he said.
The United Arab Emirates last month sentenced to death three Uzbek nationals for the murder of UAE Chabad Rabbi Zvi Kogan in late November of last year. The murder was committed at the behest of Iran, according to Western officials.
Iran’s Embassy in Abu Dhabi has denied that Tehran was involved in the rabbi’s slaying, and the UAE itself has not made the allegation.
