WASHINGTON – Two Iranian men were indicted on Monday for allegedly spyingfor Tehran in the United States, including conducting surveillance at aJewish facility and gathering information on backers of the militantIranian opposition Mujahideen-e Khalq, the Justice Department said.

Ahmadreza Mohammadi-Doostdar, 38, a dual US-Iranian citizen, and MajidGhorbani, 59, an Iranian citizen and resident of California, were chargedin the indictment with acting on behalf of Iran by conducting thesurveillance, the Justice Department said in a statement. Both werearrested on August 9.

The indictment alleges Doostdar traveled from Iran to the United States inJuly 2017 to collect intelligence about entities considered to be enemiesof the Iranian government, including Israeli and Jewish interests as wellas people associated with MEK, it said.

The Justice Department said Doostdar conducted surveillance in July 2017 ofan ultraorthodox Jewish facility in Chicago, the Rohr Chabad House,including photographing the security features.

Ghorbani attended an MEK rally in New York on September 20, 2017, toprotest the current Iranian government, taking photographs of theparticipants, which he later passed on to Doostdar and was paid about$2,000.

The photos, many with handwritten notes about the participants, were foundin Ghorbani’s luggage at a US airport as he was returning to Iran inDecember 2017, the Justice Department said.