Debra Wong Yang
United States Attorney
Central District of California
United States Courthouse
312 North Spring Street
Los Angeles, California 90012
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September 29, 2006
Thom Mrozek (213) 894-6947
Los Angeles, CA - A United States citizen was indicted today on federal charges of providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), by attending an MEK training camp in Iraq.
Zeinab Taleb-Jedi was indicted by a federal grand jury in Brooklyn, New York. Taleb-Jedi, 51, lived in Herndon, Virginia before going to the MEK camp in Iraq in 1999. Taleb-Jedi immigrated to the United States from Iran in 1978, and she became a naturalized United States citizen in 1996.
During Operation Iraqi Freedom, Taleb-Jedi was discovered by coalition forces in an MEK training camp called Ashraf Base, which is 65 kilometers northwest of Baghdad. The MEK, also known as the People's Mujahedin of Iran, was first designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department in 1997.
Taleb-Jedi will be arraigned on the one-count indictment in United States District Court in Brooklyn in approximately two weeks. The charge of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization carries a maximum possible penalty of 15 years in federal prison.
An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
Taleb-Jedi is being prosecuted in New York because her plane landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport upon her return from Iraq on March 31. The case is being prosecuted by Los Angeles-based attorneys who have been involved in MEK-related investigations since the 1990s.
This case was investigated by special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation based in the Los Angeles Field Office.
Release No. 06-130
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