WASECA — An Iranian woman sentenced to five years imprisonment by the United States Federal Court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in Dec. 2008 for brokering defense articles has been moved to the Federal Correctional Institute in Waseca.
Shahrazad Mir Gholikhan, 33, was arrested in December 2007 on charges that she and former husband Mahmoud Seif, also of Iran, had attempted to buy more than 3,500 sets of night-vision goggles with the intent to export them to Iran. Gholikhan voluntarily came to the United States and turned herself in at that time, after she and Seif had first been arrested in 2004 during a visit to Vienna, Austria, where a U.S. government informant posing as a weapons dealer showed them a sample goggle.
Throughout her imprisonment, the Iranian government in Tehran has asked for her release, claiming the mother-of-two was innocent and got caught up in her husband’s illegal dealings. Gholikhan has also claimed she has been the victim of brutal torture while imprisoned in the United States.
Last week, she was moved to FCI-Waseca after a short stay in Oklahoma following her transfer from the FCI in Danbury, Conn.
According to FCI-Waseca public information director Anne Cummins, Gholikhan is expected to stay in Waseca until her full release, which is scheduled for July 15, 2012.
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