Kocak, Ali
"Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the United Kingdom are taking joint action against a network of individuals that targeted Iranian dissidents and opposition activists for assassination at the direction of the Iranian regime. The network is led by Iranian narcotics trafficker Naji Ibrahim Sharifi-Zindashti (Zindashti) and operates at the behest of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS). Zindashti’s network has carried out numerous acts of transnational repression including assassinations and kidnappings across multiple jurisdictions in an attempt to silence the Iranian regime’s perceived critics. The network has also plotted operations in the United States... Zindashti has previously cooperated with the MOIS to target regime dissidents... Also in 2017, British-Iranian dissident Saeed Karimian (Karimian), who owned GEM TV and used it to broadcast content critical of the Iranian regime, was shot and killed in Istanbul along with Kuwaiti businessman Muhammad Mer Almuntari. Zindashti was later discovered to be behind the double murder. Ali Kocak, Abdulvahap Kocak’s brother and an associate of Zindashti’s network who is now based in Iran, conducted surveillance on the targets prior to the murder."1
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