Two Iranians charged in Canada with murder of anti-regime activist

Canadian authorities have charged two people with murder in the death of an activist who had spoken out against the Iranian government, in what police described on Saturday as a “targeted incident” involving individuals who were connected on social media.

The remains of Masood Masjoody, 45, a former university mathematics instructor, were discovered about a week ago in Mission, British Columbia. Authorities had launched an investigation into his disappearance in early February after neighbors in Burnaby, British Columbia raised concerns, The New York Times reports.

Police said they arrested a man and a woman — Mehdi Ahmadzadeh Razavi, 48, from Maple Ridge, British Columbia, and Arezou Soltani, 45, from North Vancouver, British Columbia. Both have been charged with one count of first-degree murder, according to a statement from the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team.

“While the motive is still under investigation, we can say the victim and the two accused were known to each other and that this was a targeted incident,” Freda Fong, a police spokesperson, said at a news conference.

Public records indicate that the three individuals had ongoing disputes and exchanges on social media, though it remains unclear whether those interactions played a role in the killing, Fong said. She added that neither Ahmadzadeh Razavi nor Soltani had a criminal record in Canada and had only limited prior interactions with police.

Masjoody had been a critic of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and served as a board member of the Iran Front for the Revival of Law and National Sovereignty, an anti-government activist group active in Europe and elsewhere.

In early February, the organization issued a statement expressing concern over his disappearance, describing him as someone who had devoted years to exposing “influence and intimidation networks linked to the Islamic Republic within the host countries of Iranian communities.”

In recent years, Masjoody had also filed several lawsuits against various parties, including Simon Fraser University, the social media platform X, and Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s last shah who lives in the United States and has sought to position himself as a counterweight to the Islamic Republic.

Court records show that Masjoody lost his job at Simon Fraser University because of instances of professional misconduct, including using an alternate grading system and publicly accusing staff members of providing a “safe haven for Islamic Republic thugs.”

In another lawsuit, Masjoody accused Pahlavi, X and others of facilitating a social media defamation campaign against him. Last year, a judge ruled that some of his lawsuits were “vexatious.”

By Vafa Guliyeva