Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: Hassan Jedi/Flash90
Palestinians walk next to posters of Qassem Soleimani who was killed in a U.S. drone strike on Jan. 2, near a mourning tent in Gaza City on Jan. 4, 2020
(JNS) — The U.S. Department of Justice announced murder charges against an Iranian captain in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Friday for the 2022 murder of a U.S. citizen in Iraq.
Mohammad Reza Nouri, 36, of Iran, is accused of orchestrating the murder of Stephen Troell, a Tennessee native who was working at an English language institute in Baghdad, as a response to the U.S. assassination of IRGC Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020.
“Nouri is alleged to have gathered intelligence on Troell’s daily routine and whereabouts, procured weapons and vehicles and provided safe harbor to the operatives who carried out the sinister plot to brutally attack Troell in front of his wife,” stated Edward Kim, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
“As alleged, the Iranian regime is actively targeting U.S. citizens, such as Troell, living in countries around the world for kidnapping and execution both to repress and silence dissidents critical of the regime and to take vengeance for the death of Qasem Soleimani,” Kim added.
The Justice Department is charging Nouri with nine felony counts, including murder and provision of material support to a foreign terrorist organization resulting in death. Two of the charges are capital crimes. The rest carry maximum penalties of life in prison.
Nouri and a hit squad of about nine men stalked Troell’s movements and attacked and killed him as he drove home from work with his wife. They did so under the false belief that Troell was an American or Israeli intelligence officer, according to the Justice Department.
Nouri allegedly returned to Iran on the night of the murder and arranged housing in the city of Qom for the other members of the assassination team, who subsequently joined him in Iran.
“Nouri and another IRGC official addressed the operatives during their stay in Iran, offered their blessings to the hit squad and told them that Troell was purportedly a spy on behalf of America and Israel, that Troell threatened Islam by attracting Iraqi youths to the Jewish religion and spreading it in Iraq and that Troell therefore deserved to be murdered,” per the complaint.
Troell was Christian based on his social media posts.
Iraqi authorities arrested Nouri in 2023, and he remains in Iraqi custody. In 2023, Iraq convicted one Iranian, Mohammed Ali Ridha, and four unnamed Iraqi nationals for the murder of Troell and issued life sentences on the group.
JNS sought comment from the Justice Department about whether “Mohammed Ali Ridha” is an alias for Nouri or if the two are different people.
“At least one” of the alleged assassins “is expected to be first brought to and arrested in the Southern District of New York,” per the complaint.
