Montenegro extradites to the U.S. the Iranian hacker, accused of cyberattacks in favour of Tehran

Montenegro has extradited to the United States of America the Iranian and Turkish citizen Amir Barati, whom the American authorities accuse of participating in a multi-year hacking operation linked to Iran and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The decision on his extradition was taken by the High Court in Podgorica.

Against him, proceedings are under way in a court in New York on charges of conspiracy to commit computer fraud, computer hacking and identity theft.

The court in New York and the U.S. Department of Justice have not responded regarding the further proceedings against Barati, while there is still no public information on whether he has appeared before the court.

The Police Directorate of Montenegro announced on October 1 that Interpol officials in Podgorica, with the support of the Special Police Unit, extradited to the U.S. a 40-year-old citizen of Turkey and Iran, wanted by the American authorities for several criminal offences in the field of cybercrime.

According to the Police, this is a person who, until his arrest, was considered a “high-profile wanted target, from the field of cybercrime and organised crime”.

Barati was arrested on June 25 this year in Kotor, after being located by Interpol officials in Podgorica and the Security Department in Kotor, at the request of the American authorities and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The American authorities claim that, since 2013, as a collaborator of an Iran-based organisation, he took part in massive hacking attacks directed against more than 150 American universities, causing damage estimated at more than 3.4 billion dollars.

The Police Directorate says that the stolen data and access to the compromised university accounts were used in favour of the IRGC and other users in Iran, including Iranian universities.

The Police said that Barati’s arrest and extradition are the result of cooperation between the Montenegrin and American services, stressing that over the last three years cooperation between Interpol in Podgorica and the FBI has led to locating and arresting seven persons wanted by the American judicial bodies.

The hacker network linked to Iran

According to the U.S. Department of Justice indictment, the cyber operation began in 2013 through the Iranian company Mabna Institute, which prosecutors claim gathered a network of hackers engaged in stealing data from universities, companies and state institutions.

The American authorities say the targets were dozens of state institutions, international organisations, companies and hundreds of universities around the world. The hackers mainly used “spear-phishing” campaigns, through which professors and researchers were lured into giving the login data for their university accounts.

According to the American indictment, during the operation about 8,000 professors’ email accounts were compromised in the United States, Europe and other countries.

Prosecutors claim that during the operation more than 31 terabytes of academic data and intellectual property were stolen, while the compromised accounts were used in favour of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other Iranian institutions.

Who is Amir Barati?

Barati has not been described as one of the organisers of the network, but as a hacker and collaborator of the Mabna Institute. His name was not included in the initial 2018 indictment against nine persons, but appeared in the expanded indictment against a total of 17 defendants, which was made public in 2026.

According to American prosecutors, he took part in monitoring spear-phishing campaigns, exchanging compromised user accounts, drawing up lists of possible targets, discovering computer networks and preparing phishing messages.

Radio Free Europe reported earlier that Barati had travelled to Montenegro from Turkey, whose citizenship he also holds. His defence lawyer has confirmed that, in addition to Iranian citizenship, he also has Turkish citizenship.