Three people have been arrested and charged with attempting to assassinate journalist and activist Masih Alinejad in the United States at the request of Tehran, US authorities announced on Friday.
One of them, Khalid Mehdiyev, was arrested on July 29, armed with an AK-47 assault rifle, near the New York home of this Iranian-American figure in the anti-veil movement.
“He was not acting alone, he had accomplices, Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, members of an Eastern European criminal organization linked to Iran,” US Justice Minister Merrick Garland revealed during a press conference.
A “sponsored murder”
Rafat Amirov, who ran this organization from Iran, had been contacted “by individuals in Iran to organize a sponsored assassination” against the dissident, he continued.
The 43-year-old man was arrested Thursday in the United States and is due to appear before a federal judge on Friday.
Polad Omarov, who occupied a middle position in the hierarchy of this group, was arrested in the Czech Republic on January 4 at the request of the United States. Aged 38, he is awaiting extradition.
According to the indictment, the two men had recruited US-based Khalid Mehdiyev, who had been sent $30,000 to buy a gun to finance their operation. He had carried out several scouting missions and had sent photos and videos of the journalist to Polad Omarov.
Merrick Garland said the United States “will not tolerate attempts by any foreign government to silence or harm Americans.”
Neither he nor court documents mention the journalist by name, but she said in a message to AFP, “shocked that the Iranian regime is still trying to kill her.”
Source: BFM TV
