By Ivan Kesic
Two Iranian scientists have been imprisoned for three weeks—one in the United States and the other in Italy—on baseless charges, reflecting a long-standing US policy of holding Iranian nationals hostage for political reasons.
On the evening of December 16, Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi, an engineer and entrepreneur shuttling his time between Iran and Switzerland, was arrested at Malpensa Airport by Italian authorities after arriving by flight from Istanbul.
Around the same time, in Massachusetts, US authorities arrested Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi, an engineer employed at an American semiconductor company.
The two arrests are reportedly linked to the same case, which is based on unsubstantiated allegations of violating US export laws and providing Iran with the technology used in a drone attack in Jordan last year that killed three American soldiers and wounded 47 others.
Both men are falsely accused of setting up companies in Switzerland and the US to funnel advanced American equipment toward enhancing navigation systems for the Iranian military.
They have denied all charges, pleading not guilty, while officials in Tehran have also vehemently condemned their politically-motivated detentions in the US and Italy.
Iran’s foreign ministry has summoned the Italian and Swiss ambassadors in protest in recent days, warning that Italy risks damaging bilateral relations by aligning itself with the “political and hostile goals” of the US.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei, during his weekly briefing on Monday, said the detention of an Iranian national in Italy at Washington’s request amounts to hostage-taking.
“We regard the pursuit or extradition of Iranian nationals in certain countries as a form of hostage-taking,” Baghaei said. “The main accusation against them is circumvention of unilateral US sanctions. Fabricating a judicial cover to trap Iranian nationals is illegal, immoral and a violation of human rights.”
Who is Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi?
Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi, 42, is a dual Iranian-American citizen residing in Natick, Massachusetts, with a distinguished career as an electrical engineer.
Born in Iran, Sadeghi began his academic journey at the University of Tehran, where he earned both a bachelor’s (BSc) and a master’s degree (MSc) in electrical and electronics engineering.
During his time in Iran, Sadeghi developed a groundbreaking method for anisotropic etching of polymers, offering an innovative alternative for micromachining.
His research extended to carbon nanotube (CNT) growth techniques and a pioneering nano-lithography approach using CNTs.
Seeking to further his education, Sadeghi moved to the United States, where he obtained a master’s degree (MA) in economics and a PhD in electrical and electronics engineering from the University of Michigan.
From 2008 to 2013, he worked as a graduate research assistant, delving into micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS).
His focus included a new class of biomimetic MEMS devices inspired by hair-like micro-hydraulic systems, advancing high-performance sensing and actuation technologies.
As a Research Fellow at the University of Michigan between 2014 and 2015, Sadeghi led two major projects: one on 3D inertial sensors and the other on flow sensors for micro-air vehicle (MAV) navigation. He managed project milestones, facilitated collaboration with institutions and industry partners, and showcased live demonstrations of his devices in action.
In 2016, Sadeghi founded Tacit Motion Inc., a Greater Boston-based company specializing in wearable sensor networks for kinetic monitoring and personal training.
For three years, he steered the company toward innovation and success with great results.
Following this entrepreneurial venture, Sadeghi joined Analog Devices, a global leader in semiconductor technology headquartered in Wilmington.
Initially working as a product application engineer, he later transitioned to the role of product marketing manager. There, he continued his cutting-edge research into MEMS design, fabrication, and validation, excelling in transforming concepts into fully functional devices and standalone systems.
Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi
Who is Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi?
Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi, born in Qom in 1986, enjoys the distinction of being a prominent academic in mechanical engineering and a thriving entrepreneur.
His academic journey began at the prestigious Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, where his exceptional academic performance earned him recognition as one of the top students.
Abedini joined the Mechanical Engineering Department of Sharif University in 2003, graduating with an impressive GPA of 18.73 (out of 20) in 2007.
During his undergraduate years, his achievements earned him several awards. Continuing his academic pursuits, he enrolled in the university’s master’s program, where he submitted a well-received thesis titled “State Changes in Dynamic Systems.”
While pursuing his master’s, Abedini demonstrated his engineering prowess by designing and building a two-seater electric car, which secured a notable position in a national competition.
He later advanced to the PhD program, successfully defending his thesis, “Efficiency of Optimal Control Systems,” in 2014.
Throughout his academic career, Abedini contributed significantly to various university labs, including robotics, control, and electronic design laboratories, and authored several scientific articles.
Post-PhD, he went to Switzerland for professional training at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). At EPFL, he engaged in groundbreaking research projects, particularly in mapping and terrain analysis, gaining invaluable expertise.
In addition to his academic accomplishments, Abedini is a seasoned entrepreneur.
In 2010, he founded and officially registered the Iranian company Sanat Danesh Rahpooyan Aflak (SDRA) in 2011. SDRA specializes in precision measurement equipment, offering services in consulting, designing, manufacturing, and supplying data acquisition, online monitoring, instrumentation, motion tracking, and navigation systems.
In 2019, while in Switzerland, he established Illumove SA, a Lausanne-based company focused on fusion-based navigation solutions for cutting-edge applications, including the Internet of Things (IoT), autonomous driving, and remote sensing.
Operating under Swiss governmental oversight, Illumove SA ensures full transparency, with its management, ownership structure, and trading network publicly accessible online.
Abedini’s dynamic career seamlessly bridges academia and industry, underscoring his profound impact in both fields.
Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi
Myth of a ‘top secret system’
The full texts of the US District Court’s indictment, signed by prosecutors Jared Dolan and Christina Clark, and the accompanying FBI affidavit, authored by Special Agent Ronald Neal, wrongly claim that the Sepehr navigation system developed by SDRA is a top-secret technology.
They claim that the international careers and companies of Najafabadi and Sadeghi exist solely to offer services to Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).
In reality, SDRA operates as a transparent, export-oriented company, as evidenced by its business expansion into Switzerland and frequent participation in international exhibitions in Iran—facts that American authorities appear to have overlooked.
Between 2015 and 2018, SDRA showcased its products at the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth National Exhibition of Laboratory Equipment and Chemicals (Iran Lab Expo) held at the Tehran International Permanent Fairground.
This annual exhibition, organized by the Tech Export Services Corridor (TESC), is an open platform designed to support Iranian high-tech companies and welcomes international visitors.
At these exhibitions, SDRA displayed a wide array of products for various industries, including traffic management, ecology, aviation, sports, and medicine, with an online catalog available in Persian.
Each product, including the Sepehr navigation system, was presented with comprehensive technical specifications, detailed photographs, and manufacturing details in an online catalog available in Persian.
The listed Sepehr navigation system is no exception (pp 23-24), for which there is also an individual presentation file, where it is stated that it can be used for aircraft and drones, biomechanical and medical engineering research, aerospace research, and calibration.
This contradicts claims of it being classified as military technology, as it is accessible online and presented annually to international audiences.
False accusations of covering up mutual ties
The indictment and FBI affidavit also allege that Abedini and Sadeghi conspiratorially wanted to hide their mutual connections, allegedly exposed by the FBI investigation, i.e. monitoring of “suspicious” trips to Iran and “secret” email exchanges.
This is quite astonishing considering that the very homepage of the website of Abedini’s Swiss company Illumova SA lists Sadeghi’s American company Tacit Motion as one of its partners.
It is evident from online archives that it has been there since 2020, and since last year, Sadeghi’s new employer Analog Devices has been listed among the five partners, and it still stands today.
Abedini’s Swiss company Illumova SA’s website lists Sadeghi’s US company Tacit Motion and employer Analog Devices as its partners, while the indictment claims they were trying to cover up mutual connections
The FBI’s claim that Abedini’s use of a VPN in Iran to communicate with American companies suggests illicit activity is equally puzzling and bizarre.
“VPN services are often used in criminal enterprises to obfuscate the location of a user’s device, and I have reason to believe that SDRA employees, including Abedini, were utilizing VPN services to mask their location while working on the US Company 1 [Analog Devices] project in Iran,” claims the FBI special agent on his report.
VPNs are a necessity for millions of Iranians due to widespread internet restrictions. Notably, Analog Devices’ website (analog.com) blocks Iranian IPs with this explanation: “Access denied under US Export Administration Regulations.”
The FBI’s characterization of “suspicious activities” contradicts the evidence, including Abedini’s documented inquiries to Analog Devices and Swiss airport officials about the legalities of transferring tech samples to Iran.
On one occasion, Abedini transported “sample products” to Iran for educational purposes, with prior approval from Swiss authorities—a transaction the FBI labeled a “likely” sanctions violation.
These facts instead indicate that Abedini acted with commercial transparency, adhering to US, Swiss, and Iranian laws. The same holds true for Sadeghi, whom the affidavit acknowledges recorded business partnerships with Abedini’s companies.
Despite claims of “likely” sanctions violations due to travel, it is curious why neither individual was arrested at the airport with concrete evidence. Instead, both were apprehended based on speculative accusations, further highlighting the shaky foundation of these charges.
False allegations of military ties
Furthermore, the indictment and FBI affidavit claim that Abedini’s Iranian company, SDRA, has conducted business with the IRGC Aerospace Force since 2014. However, they offer no substantive evidence, nor does SDRA’s history or public records suggest such a connection.
The FBI’s so-called “evidence” relies on a purportedly hacked email in which Abedini outlines a business plan, mentioning potential military applications and the armed forces as prospective clients.
In other words, it is merely a theoretical discussion of future possibilities, not proof of any active collaboration. Even if this email were authentic, it would hardly constitute incriminating evidence.
The official US documents further allege that SDRA’s website, between 2016 and 2018, explicitly advertised products for military use—specifically for drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles—and that these references were later scrubbed in 2019.
However, archived versions of SDRA’s website from 2017 reveal a more benign reality: the company merely expressed readiness to collaborate with the military, government, and private sectors.
In the engineering design section, they highlighted their capability to develop navigation systems with potential applications for unmanned surface and underwater vehicles—technological aspirations rather than evidence of concrete military ties.
Notably, in 2017, Iran had no operational unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), further undermining the claim of SDRA’s military involvement.
False claims of link with Jordan attack
The FBI affidavit also attempts to link SDRA’s Sepehr navigation module to a drone attack that killed three American soldiers and injured 47 others in Jordan last year.
It includes side-by-side photos of SDRA’s Sepehr motherboard and one allegedly recovered from the drone wreckage.
The latter is suspiciously well preserved for a piece of fragile hardware, especially considering that the drone’s navigation system is located in its nose, in front of the warhead, which would have been severely damaged only by a kinetic impact, let alone an explosion.
Extremely suspicious FBI “evidence” of identical Sepehr boards from the Tower 22 attack and SDRA company; left one supposedly miraculously survived impact and explosion
Even if the evidence were credible, it would not implicate SDRA. Manufacturers cannot control how their products are used by third parties, nor are they legally obligated to monitor such use.
Multipurpose technologies often find their way into unintended applications, yet this does not amount to a legal violation.
In the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, Ukrainian forces have extensively used commercially available Chinese drones procured on the international market, despite Beijing’s official stance on the war.
Similarly, SDRA’s multipurpose equipment, designed for industrial and scientific use, cannot be definitively tied to military operations.
Tehran has categorically denied involvement in the attack, despite accusations from Washington and inflammatory calls from US senators John Cornyn, Tom Cotton, and Lindsey Graham to directly target Iran in response to the attacks.
The responsibility for the attack was claimed by the Islamic Resistance of Iraq, specifically Ansarullah al-Awfiya, part of the 19th Brigade of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an Iraqi resistance movement.
Not an isolated case
The unwarranted arrests of Abedini and Sadeghi at the behest of the US government—or directly on American soil—are not unprecedented or an isolated case.
In fact, they are emblematic of a broader, troubling pattern targeting Iranian scientists on the home soil or the foreign soil, driven by political motives.
Washington’s history of detaining and harassing Iranian experts is long and deliberate, often aimed at leveraging these individuals in prisoner swaps for American or European spies held in Iran.
Such actions are designed to intimidate Iranian scientists, discouraging them from engaging in international collaborations or contributing to advancements within their own country, according to activists and observers.
Since the inception of the so-called “maximum pressure” campaign against the Islamic Republic of Iran, approximately one hundred Iranian citizens have been detained in the US on various pretexts, most commonly for allegedly circumventing sanctions.
Among these cases is that of Masoud Soleimani, a distinguished professor and biomedical researcher, who accepted an official US invitation to collaborate in 2018 only to be imprisoned in one of America’s most notorious detention facilities for over a year.
Many others have been arrested in the US and European countries on other trumped-up charges. For example, Iranian musician and filmmaker Bashir Biazar was illegally arrested and imprisoned in France last year and had to spend almost a month behind bars.
Hamid Nouri, a former Iranian judiciary official, had been illegally imprisoned in Sweden on politically motivated charges and was released in June last year after 1,680 days of incarceration.
He was put on trial in a case launched by the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorist group that has openly boasted about carrying out terrorist operations against Iranian officials and civilians.
Massoud Shadjareh, chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission in London, has aptly remarked on this troubling phenomenon, noting that the US government and its allies appear resolute in their campaign to intimidate and suppress Iranians, especially scientists.
According to Shadjareh, the underlying goal is to stifle Iran’s scientific progress and disrupt its growing intellectual capabilities.
