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Iranian Sentenced In Florida For Night-Vision Deal


Shahrzad Mir Gholikhan
Shahrzad Mir Gholikhan
MIAMI (Reuters) -- An Iranian woman was sentenced to more than five years in prison for brokering a deal to send night-vision goggles to Iran in violation of the U.S. embargo, prosecutors have said.

Shahrazad Mir Gholikhan, 31, was arrested in Vienna more than four years ago in a sting operation as U.S. and Austrian agents thwarted a plot to export to Iran up to 3,000 Generation 3 night-vision goggles.

U.S. District Judge James Cohn sentenced Gholikhan on March 6 to 63 months following her conviction on December 18, 2008, of violations of the U.S. embargo against Iran, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami said.

The U.S. government has brought a number of criminal cases in recent years for violations of the Iran embargo in an effort to shut down global networks supplying Iran's military.

In one case filed last year in Miami, two owners of U.S.-based aviation companies were accused of conspiring to procure and ship parts for F-14 Tomcat fighter jets, attack helicopters, and heavy-lift transport helicopters to Iran.

The night-vision goggles are considered highly sensitive U.S. military equipment, which may not be exported from the United States without a special license from the State Department.

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