Supposed ‘Iran/Canadian Hells Angels member’ murder plot indictment full of holes
Image from the indictment released by the US Department of Justice against two Canadians and one Iranian national.
Written by: Marthad Umucyaba
A new accusation of a ‘sophisticated’ crime network run by Iran’s intelligence ministry, specializing in the assassination of dissidents abroad, is now circulating thanks to a United States Department of Justice (DOJ) indictment of Iranian National Naji Sharifi Zindashti, and two Canadians.
These Canadians are Damian Patrick John Ryan, a badged member of the Hell’s Angels, and Adam Richard Pearson. Zindashti is alleged to have paid Ryan and Pearson, while in Iran running his crime syndicate, to kill two Iranian dissidents residing in Maryland. The allegation, unsurprisingly, was pushed with little critical analysis in a CBC News article, in which the RCMP and CSIS were lauded for their ‘cooperation’.
It’s no coincidence that this story emerged as Israel is about to retreat from the Gaza strip, in order to wage a disastrous war against Lebanon. Israel’s failures on the battlefield in Gaza and the mass displacement of Israeli settlers in the North, occupied parts of Lebanon, can largely be attributed to military arms and other logistical support from Iran. The growing popularity of Iran in Muslim diasporas, white-washed as ‘growing foreign interference and influence’, and the larger BRICS alliance that it constitutes, is notably being felt in the stranded Middle Eastern and African diasporas in the West.
The shutdown of SkyECC.com
Allegedly the ‘assassins’ used the now seized site and encrypted messaging service skyecc.com, owned by Sky Global. The site was seized near the end of March 2021, allegedly around the time that the ‘hit job’ was attempted by Ryan and Pearson in Maryland. We’re told that, of course, the ‘authorities’ saved the day and stopped the Iranian dissidents from being killed.
The ‘assassination plot’, incidentally, was not the triggering factor in shutting down Sky ECC.com on March 19, 2021. The incident that triggered the shutdown didn’t even occur in Maryland, or even in America, but in Belgium. A drug bust of a Hell’s Angels drug operation in Belgium on March 9, 2021 triggered the investigation into skyecc.com’s encrypted messages, and the general allegation of racketeering was placed against the site and its parent company, Sky Global. The site was officially shut down and seized on March 19, 2021.
It should be noted that after all of the encrypted messages were gathered on February 15, 2021, it only took a month and a half, until April of 2021, for even the regular Belgian Police to decrypt half of all of the messages on the server. This indictment, based on illicit activity on skyecc.com, was issued on January 29, 2024, almost three years later. That’s already a red flag, but yes, unfortunately, for those still wanting to believe in the US DOJ claim, there’s more.
The alleged ‘assassination plot’
The details of this alleged ‘assassination plot’ form the basis for the US’ new anti-Iran sanctions. Zindashti, supposedly is a ‘criminal kingpin’ who’s been given ‘freedom of movement’ by IranMinistry of Intelligence in exchange for assassinating dissidents abroad. His handler is alleged to be MOIS official Reza Hamidiravari. A thin allegation like this was enough of a reason for the governments of the US and UK to sanction Reza Hamidiravari. The Iranian government was so outraged at the manufactured pretext that they summoned the UK Ambassador as soon as they saw the sanctions list.
The idea, according to the indictment, was to have Ryan and Pearson kill the two Iranian dissidents, only conveniently identified as Victim One and Victim Two (‘Zindashti Indictment’, page 1). The US DOJ story, for extra flair, has Ryan and Pearson saying that they will “send a message” by shooting the head of one of the unnamed Iranian dissident victims so frequently that they will “erase his head from his torso” (‘Zindashti Indictment’, page 4).
According to the indictment, Ryan and Pearson were actually paid by Zindashti. Of course, they had to have been, because without an actual payment, there would be no case against Zindashti, or his alleged handler Hamidiravari. All of this assumes, of course, that this relationship between them even exists. Ryan and Pearson were, allegedly, paid travel expenses in early March, and no longer communicated on SkyECC.com after March 8, 2021, after Ryan was given a “number to call” (‘Zindashti Indictment’, page 5), well before the site was seized by the FBI.
The questionable timing of the arrests and charges
In the indictment, no arrest of the two suspects, nor disruption of the alleged ‘murder plot’ are mentioned. The CBC News report mentions that the ‘authorities’ intervened and prevented the murder plot. They ‘saved the day’, apparently. However, the biggest plot holes come from the arrests and the circumstances behind them.
Zindashti is alleged, at the time of the incident, to have been in Iran, and is still in Iran at the time of this writing. Needless to say, he was never arrested.
Pearson was the first suspect to be arrested. He was arrested on July 26, 2021, not in Maryland, where the alleged ‘murder plot’ was supposed to take place, but in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He also evidently wasn’t arrested over the murder plot, as he was extradited to Canada to face murder charges from 2019.
Ryan was not arrested until February 2022, nearly a year after the alleged ‘murder plot’. Moreover, he was not arrested in Maryland, or even in the United States, but in Ottawa, on the illegal possession of 12 firearms. Each count of illegal possession carries a sentence of three to ten years. Conveniently, neither of these alleged paid assassins will be out of jail for many years, and as a consequence, the need to secure concrete evidence for this indictment will never arise. Pearson is facing life imprisonment, and Ryan will be in jail for at least 36 years.
Fiction from the US DOJ and CBC News
The likelihood that this ‘murder plot’ from the US Department of Justice is a complete fabrication is unfortunately very high. It was a conveniently timed and imagined pretext to try to spread anti-Iranian propaganda, at a time when the popularity of the Islamic Republic of Iran, particularly in the Muslim diaspora, is rapidly increasing. Canada made no diplomatic protestations or even clarifications of their citizens imagined ‘role’ in an Iranian back assassination plot, despite it being a fiction. In fact, based on the DOJ press release, the RCMP and CSIS actually conspired with them to manufacture this story.
An imagined violation of ‘American sovereignty’, and the fictitious narrative of the use of unsavoury criminals to achieve Iran’s ‘evil’ ends is a desperate attempt to paint the religious values of the Islamic Republic of Iran as hypocritical, while resurfacing an imagined ‘interference’ in the domestic affairs of Canada and the United States of America.
The propaganda against the Axis of Resistance launched by NATO at the start of the Israel-Gaza war was dismantled soundly in a short period of time. The courageous actions of the Axis of Resistance have also gone viral, and the majority of youth now support their struggle to free their entire homeland of Palestine. And of course, their only official state backer, Iran, has felt the waves of increasing popularity as a result. NATO is desperate to reverse this shift.
This case is a clear message that NATO will use any pretext, cover story, or even any method to silence voices which don’t want to demonise Iran, or even see Iran positively. For those with a BRICS-centred worldview, be prepared to become NATO’s ‘own’ political dissidents, and be treated accordingly.
Documents
Editor’s note: Introducing Operation 135, The Canada Files’ campaign to go from 65 to 200 consistent financial supporters. The Canada Files is the country's only news outlet focused on Canadian foreign policy. We've provided critical investigations & hard-hitting analysis on Canadian foreign policy since 2019, and need your support.
Please consider joining 82 consistent financial supporters, in setting up a monthly or annual donation through Donorbox.
Marthad Shingiro Umucyaba (formerly referred to as Christian Shingiro) is a Rwandan-born naturalized Canadian expat. He is known for his participation in Communist/anti-imperialist national and international politics and is the radio show host of The Socially Radical Guitarist.
He is also a freelance web developer in Hong Kong, China, striving to provide “Socially Radical Web Design at a socially reasonable price”.
More Articles
