Five teenagers appeared before the Gothenburg district court on Wednesday, charged with an attempted murder plot against Iranian researcher Arvin Khoshnood. The youths, aged 15 to 17, face three counts of attempted murder and two of complicity. Prosecutors say the attack was staged on 2 September 2025 when a 16‑year‑old, armed with a knife, rang the doorbell at Khoshnood's Malmö residence and asked whether the husband was home.
Khoshnood's lawyer, Sylvia Strid, told AFP that the victim sensed danger, ordered his wife to shut the door and photographed the intruder, evidence she described as "crucial to the investigation. He really had a guardian angel. Their young children were also in the house." Khoshnood escaped injury, later moving to protected housing. Strid added that the family "is under enormous pressure, and the whole family is as well, since they had to flee their home and their lives," but they are now in a "better situation" with support from colleagues.
According to the prosecution, the teen was recruited through messaging apps, promised payment, and received instructions, a knife and contract terms from three other suspects and an unidentified mastermind. Prosecutor Per‑Erik Rinsell called the case "crime as a service," where young offenders carry out orders from organised‑crime figures.
Khoshnood believes the plot was orchestrated by Foxtrot, a major Swedish gang led by Rawa Majid, who is reported to have links to Iranian authorities. Strid said, "It is the only reasonable motive here." Foxtrot has been tied to several recent shootings, bombings and murders in Sweden and is known to recruit children via social media.
Swedish security service SAPO has warned that Iran exploits local gangs to target Israeli interests and Iranian opposition figures on Swedish soil, a claim Tehran denies. One of the accused also faces a separate charge for planning a bomb attack on Aimpoint's Malmö headquarters, a firm that halted sales to Israel in May 2025. Several of the teenagers are additionally charged with an attempted murder in Uddevalla a week after the Khoshnood incident.
The most striking element of the case is the alleged involvement of Rawa Majid, head of the Foxtrot gang, whose purported connections to Iran illustrate how state‑backed repression can be outsourced to local criminal networks.
This development sits at the intersection of diaspora politics and Sweden's internal security challenges. Khoshnood, a vocal supporter of exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, has become a target for a regime that views dissent abroad as a threat. By leveraging "crime as a service," Iranian operatives allegedly bypass diplomatic channels, exploiting Sweden's own gang infrastructure to silence opposition voices.
For ordinary Swedes, the episode signals a widening threat horizon: ordinary neighbourhoods could become arenas for foreign power struggles, and youths may be lured into violent assignments through familiar messaging platforms. The protective measures granted to Khoshnood's family underscore the personal risk faced by high‑profile expatriates and their relatives.
The case also reflects a broader pattern of Iran's alleged use of European criminal groups to pursue
