Indicted in a scheme to obtain night vision goggles for Iran, Shahrazad Mir Gholikhan decided after three years to turn herself in. She had a deal to plead guilty, get time served and go home to her twin daughters.
At least that's what the Iranian national thought.
Days after her April 25 plea, federal prosecutors shocked Gholikhan, 30, by pointing out a mistake had been made in calculating her sentence. Now she's sitting in a downtown Miami prison serving a term of more than two years.
She wants to withdraw her guilty plea and take her case to trial, not because she does not think she's guilty, but because she wants a sentence she considers fair.
"Ultimately, it's shocking," said her lawyer, Bill Barzee. "She was promised one thing and then she was given another."
Mark Allenbaugh, former counsel to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, said after reviewing documents in the case that the mistake happened because there was "a rush to get the sentencing done" without the usual detailed recommendations.
"The overall theme to this sentence is rush, rush, rush on the part of the defendant and judge initially acquiescing to it," Allenbaugh said. "Obviously, this strategy failed her."
Gholikhan and her ex-husband were indicted in 2005 by a grand jury in Fort Lauderdale on charges of conspiring to obtain night vision goggles for Iran's military and police. The goggles are known as Generation III, which have state-of-the-art image resolution technology and amplify light.
The pair were arrested in 2004 in Vienna, Austria, after a hotel meeting with two men who were working undercover for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The agency was acting on a tip that Iran wanted to buy 3,500 pairs of the sophisticated goggles, which are illegal to export to Iran.
Gholikhan, who had worked for a company in Tehran called Noor Al Fath General Trading company, admitted in court her main role was acting as translator and go-between for her ex-husband, who does not speak English. She spent about a month in an Austrian jail and returned to Iran.
Efforts to extradite her and her ex-husband to the U.S. failed, but then in December, Gholikhan decided to come to South Florida to keep from having the case hanging over her head. She told her twin 11-year-old daughters she would be home soon. The indictment doesn't specify what the connection to South Florida is.
Prosecutors said there was never a guarantee of no prison time, only that they would recommend Gholikhan get a relatively light term under whatever federal sentencing guidelines applied to her case. The mistake was in relying on a guideline range of zero to six months; Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Walleisa said the correct range is 30 to 37 months.
"There was an error. And we are here to fix the error," Walleisa said in court.
Under federal law, a judge can change a sentence within seven business days if there's a showing of "arithmetic, technical or other clear error." So on May 6, Judge James I. Cohn held a second hearing and imposed a sentence of 29 months, giving Gholikhan credit for her month in an Austrian jail.
The judge noted that the law required him to order prison time.
"The court felt it had no choice because there was clear error shown" in the original sentence calculation, Cohn said at the hearing.
Prosecutors said the tougher sentence applied because export of night vision goggles to Iran falls under laws concerning threats to national security _ a factor that wasn't correctly calculated the first time. They also say Gholikhan was more involved in the scheme than it may appear.
Gholikhan used an alias in her contacts with U.S. undercover agents about the goggles, according to documents filed by prosecutors. She also was the key player in setting up the meeting in Vienna, authorities contend.
"Her crime is serious and warrants an appropriately severe sentence," Walleisa said.
Gholikhan has filed a motion to withdraw her guilty plea to a single count of conspiracy to export the goggles without a license. Cohn invited her to do so, noting repeatedly that he was concerned about the entire situation.
Barring a new sentence, Gholikhan will get out of prison Jan. 28, 2010.
Authorities believe her ex-husband is still in Iran, which does not have an extradition treaty with the U.S.
