WASHINGTON: The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has indicted two Iranians and a Pakistani national for allegedly providing material support to Tehran’s weapons programme.
A superseding indictment, filed on Thursday, charged two Iranian brothers — Shahab Mir’kazei and Yunus Mir’kazei — along with Pakistani Muhammad Pahlawan for “conspiring to provide and providing material support to Iran’s weapons of mass destruction programme”.
The development comes on the heels of the DOJ charging another Pakistani national, Asif Raza Merchant, who also allegedly had ties with Iran, in connection with a plot to assassinate a US politician and other officials on American soil.
The issue was raised at Friday’s Foreign Office press briefing in Islamabad, where Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch was asked about consular access to these individuals.
Muhammad Pahlawan was among several captured by US forces during action off Somali coast
“I had informed sometime back that we were given consular access to those Pakistanis,” she said in response to a question about the Pahlawan indictment.
Thursday’s indictment also accused the three men of “conspiring to commit violence against maritime navigation and maritime transport involving weapons of mass destruction resulting in death.”
