A superseding indictment was returned yesterday charging two Iranian citizens, brothers Shahab Mir’kazei (Shahab) and Yunus Mir’kazei (Yunis), and one Pakistani citizen, Muhammad Pahlawan, for conspiring to provide and providing material support to Iran’s weapons of mass destruction program resulting in death and conspiring to commit violence against maritime navigation and maritime transport involving weapons of mass destruction resulting in death. Pahlawan is currently awaiting trial, while Shahab and Yunus remain at large.
According to the court documents, Shahab and Yunus work for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Pahlawan is a Pakistani citizen who allegedly worked for the Mir’kazei brothers as the captain of a smuggling vessel known as a dhow, named the “Yunus,” which is owned by Shahab.
Pahlawan allegedly worked with Shahab to prepare the dhow for multiple smuggling voyages, and Shahab paid Pahlawan in Iranian Rials from a bank account in Shahab’s name. Pahlawan allegedly arranged to receive payments from Shahab and Yunus in Iran and distribute the money to his family and others.
On the night of Jan. 11, U.S. Central Command Navy forces operating from the USS LEWIS B. PULLER, including Navy SEALs and members of the U.S. Coast Guard, boarded the dhow off the coast of Somalia. Two Navy SEALs lost their lives during the interdiction.
As alleged, the U.S. boarding team encountered 14 individual mariners on the vessel, including Pahlawan. During a search of the dhow, the U.S. boarding team allegedly located and seized what is believed to be Iranian-made advanced conventional weaponry. Preliminary analysis of the advanced conventional weaponry indicates that it includes critical components for medium-range ballistic missiles and anti-ship cruise missiles, including a warhead and propulsion and guidance components. The type of weaponry found aboard the dhow is allegedly consistent with that used by Houthi rebel forces in recent attacks on merchant ships and U.S. military ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
In addition to the charges described above, Pahlawan is charged with providing materially false information to U.S. Coast Guard officers during the boarding of the dhow regarding the vessel’s captain and witness intimidation for threatening one of the crewmembers on board.
If convicted, Pahlawan, Shahab, and Yunus all face maximum penalties of life in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, U.S. Attorney Jessica D. Aber for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Executive Assistant Director Robert Wells of the FBI’s National Security Branch made this announcement.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Troy A. Edwards Jr., Gavin R. Tisdale for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Trial Attorney Lesley Woods of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section are prosecuting this case.
An indictment is merely an allegation; all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
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