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The Justice Department has charged three men as part of an Iran-backed plot to kill an Iranian American author and activist who has spoken out against human rights abuses, officials said Friday.
The men, Rafat Amirov, 43, of Iran, Polad Omarov, 38, of the Czech Republic and Slovenia and Khalid Mehdiyev, 24, of Yonkers, New York, were charged with money laundering and murder-for-hire in a superseding indictment unsealed in federal court in New York. The three men were in custody and one was awaiting extradition to the U.S.
Though authorities didn’t identify the alleged target by name, the circumstances described in court documents closely resembled those of Masih Alinejad, an Iranian opposition activist and writer in exile in New York City.
IRANIAN ACTIVIST MASIH ALINEJAD: 'WE SAY NO TO RELIGIOUS DICTATORSHIP'
Mehdiyev was arrested last year after he was found driving around Masih’s Brooklyn neighborhood with a loaded rifle and dozens of rounds of ammunition. Alinejad told The Associated Press at the time that authorities told her the man was looking for her, and that a home security video had caught him skulking outside her front door.
"The government of Iran has previously targeted dissidents around the world, including the victim, who oppose the regime’s violations of human rights," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in announcing the charges.
Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks at the Department of Justice in Washington on Jan. 27, 2023, to discuss recent law enforcement action in the case regarding the plot to kill Masih Alinejad. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
He said "individuals in Iran" had tasked the defendants with carrying out the plot to kill the activist. Federal officials also learned that photos were taken of the activist's home.
"The victim publicized the Iranian government’s human rights abuses, discriminatory treatment of women, suppression of democratic participation and expression and use of arbitrary imprisonment, torture and execution," Garland said. "This activity posed such a threat to the government of Iran that the chief judge of Iran’s Revolutionary courts warned that anyone who sent videos to the victim criticizing the regime would be sentenced to prison."
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In 2021, an Iranian intelligence official and three others were charged with plotting to kidnap the victim, he said.
All three defendants are natives of Azerbaijan, which shares a border and cultural ties with Iran.
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