Former justice minister Irwin Cotler says RCMP told him Iranian plot to kill him was foiled

The RCMP has told former justice minister Irwin Cotler that a plot by agents of Iran to assassinate him was foiled.

As first reported by the Globe and Mail, the 84-year-old former Liberal MP was informed last month that a plot to assassinate him within 48 hours had been discovered.

Cotler, a human-rights advocate and an outspoken critic of the regime in Tehran, confirmed the Globe and Mail report and told Radio-Canada on Monday that he has been under police protection for over a year.

That protection, Cotler said, remains in place 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and involves the use of an armoured car, armed protection officers and other security measures.

The Globe and Mail reported the threat level faced by Cotler had been reduced; Cotler himself could not confirm that part of the report. It’s also not known whether suspects have been arrested or have fled the country. 

Earlier this month, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi denied U.S. claims that Tehran was linked to an alleged plot to kill Donald Trump.

Washington said Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards engaged in a murder-for-hire plot to kill Trump. U.S. authorities charged a man connected to the plot before the U.S. election.

Investigators said they learned of the plot from Farhad Shakeri, an alleged Iranian government asset who authorities say maintains a web of criminal associates enlisted by Tehran for surveillance and murder-for-hire plots.

U.S. linked two Canadians to previous murder plot

In January, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed an indictment alleging two Canadians planned to conduct assassinations in the U.S. on behalf of Iran’s Intelligence services.

The indictment identifies one Canadian suspect as Damion Patrick John Ryan, a full-patch member of the Hells Angels criminal gang who is accused of assembling a team of gunmen in late 2020 and early 2021. 

Ryan allegedly was working with another Canadian, Adam Richard Pearson, who was living illegally in Minnesota at the time.

U.S. authorities say the men were hired by an accused Iranian drug dealer who operates on the instructions of a certain officer with Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security.

The men are accused of plotting to shoot a man and woman living in Maryland, one of them a defector from Iran.

According to the indictment, Pearson promised that he would recruit people and tell them to shoot the victims repeatedly in the head in order to make an example of them.