Iranian, 2 Others Detained in Peru Over Plot to Kill Israelis
Commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Quds Force, Esmail Qaani speaks in Tehran, Dec. 20, 2022. Photo: Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Reuters Connect
An Iranian and two Peruvians have been sentenced to 18 months of preventative detention for allegedly plotting to kill two Israelis living in Peru.
The order by Magistrate Miguel Quevedo was issued on Tuesday but released on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press, which reported that the defendants were also accused of conspiracy to commit terrorism.
Peruvian police and prosecutors said that the Iranian, Majid Azizi, could be a member of the elite Quds force branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a US-designated terrorist organization. The Quds Force is responsible for Iran’s proxies and terror operations abroad.
The Israeli embassy in Lima, the Peruvian capital, on March 15 thanked local authorities for arresting Azizi and “having dismantled an Iranian attack that was directed against an Israeli citizen.”
Azizi contacted Walter Loja and Ángelo Trucios, both Peruvians, last month to plan the killing of Israeli Shachar Malka, according to prosecutors.
Malka’s social media indicated he was a tour guide and healer using traditional plants in Cusco, the ancient capital of the Incas, for more than five years.
The other Israeli target, according to the Associated Press, was Gilad Duchovny, who opened a cafe in Cusco in 2006.
“It has been established with a high degree of plausibility” that Azizi conspired with the Peruvians to kill the Israelis, the judge said. One of the Peruvians, Trucios, has a conviction for murder and aggravated robbery.
Police reportedly found information about Malka and Duchovny in Azizi’s house in Lima.
“We had to act quickly, because today [Azizi] was set to return to Iran after forming a terrorist cell to wipe out an Israeli national,” Gen. Oscar Arriola, chief of Peruvian police, said in a press conference last month. Azizi has been living in Peru since 1997.
Azizi’s defense has denied all charges against him.
Iran and its proxy, the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, have established operations in Latin America for years. Earlier this month, for example, Argentina’s highest criminal court blamed Iran for the fatal 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, declaring it a “crime against humanity.”
The judges ruled that the attack on the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA), which killed 85 people and left hundreds injured, was carried out by Hezbollah and responded “to a political and strategic design” by Iran.
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