U.S. Judge Grants Bail to Iranian Engineer in Case Linked to Deadly Drone Strike

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - A federal judge in Boston has granted bail to an Iranian-born engineer charged with illegally procuring navigation technology used in Iranian military drones, citing the escalating conflict between the United States and Iran as a factor that significantly reduces his risk of flight.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani on Thursday allows Mahdi Sadeghi, a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen, to be released on a $500,000 bond to strict home detention just days before his trial. Sadeghi is accused of participating in a scheme to violate U.S. export controls by acquiring microelectronics for a company that supplies Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

According to federal prosecutors, the technology Sadeghi allegedly helped procure was found inside an Iranian Shahed drone that struck Tower 22, a U.S. military outpost in Jordan, in Jan. 2024.

That attack, carried out by Iran-backed militants, killed three Army Reserve soldiers and injured 47 others, marking a major escalation in regional hostilities that eventually erupted into the current war.

For months, Judge Talwani had denied Sadeghi's requests for pretrial release, citing concerns that he might flee to Iran to evade prosecution. But on Thursday, she concluded that the geopolitical landscape had fundamentally shifted. 

The outbreak of war in Feb., sparked by heavy U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian territory, made the prospect of Sadeghi and his family returning to Iran "less attractive" and highly impractical, the judge said.

"It is just a different political world," Talwani remarked during the hearing, according to reporting by Nate Raymond of Reuters.

The judge also noted that Sadeghi's wife has expressed a strong desire for the family to remain in the United States, where they live in Natick, Massachusetts, a residency Sadeghi would forfeit if he fled. 

Sadeghi, a former employee of Analog Devices, has pleaded not guilty. He faces trial on June 22.

His co-defendant, Iranian businessman Mohammad Abedini, will not stand trial alongside him. Italian authorities released Abedini last year while he was awaiting extradition to the U.S., following Iran's detention and subsequent release of an Italian journalist.

Expanding Immigration Enforcement

The legal proceedings unfold as the Trump administration takes an increasingly aggressive approach to Iranian nationals residing in the United States, blurring the lines between national security, foreign policy, and immigration enforcement.

While Sadeghi, a U.S. citizen, prepares for trial, the administration is quietly expanding its deportation operations targeting Iranian asylum seekers and green-card holders.

According to a separate report by Reuters correspondents Robbie Corey-Boulet and Giulia Paravicini, the U.S. government is preparing to deport Iranians and other migrants to the Central African Republic (CAR) under a newly negotiated third-country deportation agreement.

The arrangement allows Washington to send deportees to the chronically unstable African nation, which is heavily reliant on Russian mercenaries and struggling with widespread poverty.

Among those slated for deportation are two Iranian women who had previously secured legal protection from a U.S. immigration judge because they faced a greater than 50 percent risk of persecution or torture if returned to Iran.

One woman is a Christian convert; the other is a pro-democracy activist.

Ali Rahnama, interim legal director at the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund, criticized the policy in remarks to Reuters, noting the stark contradiction between Washington's rhetoric and its actions. 

"At the very moment the United States is promising the Iranian people freedom and support for standing against the Islamic Republic, it is sending Iranian asylum seekers who fled that same regime back toward their demise," he said.

Scrutinizing the Diaspora

The crackdown extends beyond asylum seekers, increasingly targeting prominent legal residents with perceived ties or sympathies to the Iranian government.

The State Department has utilized federal immigration law to initiate deportation proceedings against noncitizens whose presence is deemed contrary to U.S. foreign policy interests.

This broad authority has drawn intense scrutiny toward high-profile figures within the Iranian American diaspora.

According to an investigative report by Jay Solomon in The Free Press, the State Department is currently investigating Trita Parsi, the co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and one of Washington's most prominent critics of the U.S. war with Iran.

Parsi, who holds a U.S. green card, has long advocated for diplomatic accommodation with Tehran. However, some Trump administration officials view his work not merely as policy advocacy, but as efforts that undermine U.S. security.

"Anyone who seeks to undermine the U.S., we're taking a hard look at," an administration official told The Free Press regarding the efforts by Secretary of State Marco Rubio to combat Iranian influence.

The administration has already taken action against other individuals.

Federal agents recently revoked the green cards of relatives of Masoumeh Ebtekar, a former leader of the 1979 U.S. embassy takeover in Tehran, and arrested the niece and grandniece of Qasem Soleimani, the assassinated commander of the IRGC's Quds Force.

The convergence of federal prosecutions, third-country deportations, and aggressive visa revocations signals a comprehensive tightening of the domestic perimeter as the conflict with Iran continues abroad.

For the administration, targeting procurement networks and scrutinizing the diaspora are viewed as essential components of wartime national security.

But for civil liberties advocates and targeted communities, the sweeping enforcement measures risk punishing dissenting voices and vulnerable asylum seekers under the broad umbrella of wartime necessity.