Sweden Sentences Teen over Plot to Kill Iranian Researcher

A teenager who turned up on the doorstep of an Iranian researcher in southern Sweden armed with a knife was sentenced Thursday to almost four years in a young offenders institution. The teenager was convicted along with two others of a plot to kill Arvin Khoshnood, a high-profile academic who maintains that the Iranian government was ultimately behind the attack. The youngster was recruited through messaging apps by the other defendants and promised a payment to kill Khoshnood. He showed up at Khoshnood’s house in the city of Malmo in September last year and spoke to the researcher’s wife. The researcher stayed inside and called the police. He has since been living in hiding at another address, his lawyer told AFP during the trial. “The court considers it established that A.N. armed himself with a knife and went to the victim’s home with the intention of killing him,” the Uddevalla court wrote in its ruling. The court found there was not enough evidence for a charge of attempted murder and reclassified the offence as preparatory acts to commit murder. The main defendant was handed three years and nine months in a juvenile detention center. Khoshnood regularly appears in Swedish media as an expert on Iran. On social media, he supports Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last Shah, who lives in exile in the United States and leads one of many opposition movements based abroad.