BOSTON, May 6 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge declined on

Tuesday to allow an Iranian-born engineer to be released on bail

while he awaits trial on charges related to a deadly drone

attack on a U.S. military base in Jordan carried out by

Iran-backed militants last year.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston ruled that the

risk that Mahdi Sadeghi might flee was too great to allow him to

be released on bond while he awaited trial on charges that he

engaged in a scheme to violate U.S. export control and sanctions

laws.

"The seriousness of the charges and the weight of the

evidence against Sadeghi give him incentive to flee if he is

released, and Sadeghi's dual citizenship and connections to Iran

give him the means to do so," she wrote.

The decision overturned a federal magistrate judge's

determination in March that Sadeghi, a resident of Natick,

Massachusetts, could be released on a $100,000 bond so long as

he was subject to home incarceration with location monitoring.

Prosecutors had initially been open to a potential bail

package for Sadeghi. But they shifted in mid-January to pushing

for his continued detention after the Italian government

released his co-defendant, Iranian businessman Mohammad Abedini,

and allowed him to return to Iran.

That occurred after Iran released an Italian journalist,

Cecilia Sala, who was detained in Tehran three days after the

men were arrested. Prosecutors argued the events signaled Iran

might take steps to help Sadeghi flee.

A lawyer for Sadeghi did not respond to a request for

comment. Sadeghi had pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors allege that Abedini headed an Iranian firm whose

primary client was Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and

that made the navigation system used in its military drone

program.

That system was used in an unmanned drone that struck a U.S.

outpost in Jordan called Tower 22 in January 2024, prosecutors

said. The attack killed three U.S. service members and injured

47 others.

Sadeghi, while working at the semiconductor company Analog

Devices ( ADI ) in Massachusetts, helped Abedini secure

technology that was transferred to Iran, prosecutors alleged.

The technology Abedini obtained included the same type of

electronic components used in the drone navigation system,

prosecutors said.

Iran has denied involvement in last year's attack and had

dismissed accusations that it imprisoned Sala to pressure Italy

into releasing Abedini.