Section 03 · Iran's Long Arm

How a Case Is Defined

One case is one prosecuted conspiracy. A complaint, the indictment that follows it and any superseding indictment are steps in that case, not new cases. A defendant charged in two of those papers is one person.

The Four Figures, Kept Apart

14

cases charged in U.S. federal or British courts since 2011 in which the charging papers, a court ruling or the prosecutor's release name Iran or an Iranian state body.

11

people convicted, by plea or verdict, on any charge in those cases. One defendant in the Brooklyn kidnapping case was convicted of sanctions and structuring charges, not of the kidnapping conspiracy; her entry says so.

20

people at large, where the prosecutor's release says so or the FBI lists them as wanted. 10 more are charged with no verdict, including some held abroad.

3

plots attributed to Iran in English-language statements by European governments, with no charge in a U.S. or British court. These are never added to the figures above.

Iran's Role, Quoted

The agency line on each case is the document's own wording with a paragraph or page number, for example “working on behalf of the IRGC-QF” or “an Iranian intelligence official.” Where the charging release names no Iranian body, the case says so and quotes the government statement that does. Hired criminals are described only as the documents describe them.

How People Are Named

• Defendants are named only as charged, with their status and its date: charged, convicted, acquitted, dismissed, at large, or released in exchange.
• When a defendant is acquitted or a charge is dismissed, the case and the outcome stay; the name is withheld everywhere, including feeds and downloads.
• European defendants appear only as the source names them. A name the official document does not give is never added from press reports.
• Victims and targets are described by role. A target is named only if a public figure who has spoken publicly about the plot, with that statement linked.
• No MEF-party court case filed before 2024 appears.

Sources

U.S. Department of Justice releases and the complaints and indictments attached to them; court filings on CourtListener; FBI wanted notices; Crown Prosecution Service and Counter Terrorism Policing releases; statements to Parliament; English-language statements by European governments; Treasury designations that cite a plot. Some Justice Department pages were read through the Internet Archive's copy when the live page returned a bot check; the link always points to the live page. Federal filings and British Crown material may be reproduced; everything else is linked.

Context, not a figure here: the British government's own statement on the scale of Iranian plotting.

“The Director General of MI5 said in October last year that the police and MI5 had responded to 20 Iran backed plots presenting potentially lethal threats.”

How This Differs from the Washington Institute Map

The Washington Institute's Iranian External Operations map (launched August 2024) charts Iranian operations worldwide since 1979 and is the standard reference. These pages are narrower: cases in U.S. and British courts, each tied to its charging papers, the outcome for every defendant, and who remains at large.

Coming Next

Court cases in Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and France will be added after review by a reader fluent in each legal language. Hostage-taking inside Iran is a separate subject.

Updates

A weekly sweep of new Justice Department, Crown Prosecution Service and court filings, with alerts when a charge or verdict lands. A new entry goes live only after a named editor signs it off. Related MEF work: Held Liable, on terror judgments against Iran, and Inside Iran's Arsenal, on Iranian weapons components.