On Friday, the Justice Department said three men had been charged in connection with an alleged plot to kill an Iranian-American novelist and activist who had spoken out against human rights abuses in Iran.
An indictment against the men was unsealed in federal court in New York, accusing Rafat Amirov, 43, of Iran, Polad Omarov, 38, of the Czech Republic and Slovenia, and Khalid Mehdiyev, 24, of Yonkers, New York, of money laundering. and murder for hire. One of the three arrested was held for extradition to the United States.
Exiled journalist, activist and writer for the Iranian opposition Masih Alinejad admitted to The Associated Press that she was the intended target.
“I’m not afraid,” Alinejad told the AP after US authorities announced the charges. “I want to tell you that the Iranian regime thinks by trying to kill me they will silence me, or silence other women. But they only strengthen me, empower me to fight for democracy and give a voice to brave women who face guns and bullets on the streets to get rid of the Islamic Republic.”
She said the FBI gave her the conspirators’ internal communications, including a final message that read: “Today it’s going to happen.” The Iranian mission to the UN did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegations. The claimed plot was not immediately acknowledged by Iranian state media on Friday evening.
However, the indictment does not expressly accuse Iran’s theocratic government of being behind the alleged contract killing, even though the mastermind of the accused plot resides there.
White House national security director Jake Sullivan said the matter “follows a disturbing pattern of Iranian government-sponsored attempts to kill, torture and silence activists for speaking out for the fundamental rights and freedoms of Iranians around the world,”
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Last year, police in Brooklyn’s Masih neighborhood spotted Mehdiyev driving around with a loaded “AK-47-style” rifle and plenty of ammunition in his car. Authorities had informed Alinejad, she told The Associated Press at the time, that the man was looking for her, and a security camera had caught him lurking outside her front door.
“The government of Iran has previously targeted dissidents around the world, including the victim, who oppose the regime’s human rights abuses,” That’s what Attorney General Merrick Garland said when announcing the indictment. According to him, “individuals in Iran” had hired the accused killers to carry out the plot.
“The victim publicized the Iranian government’s human rights violations, the discriminatory treatment of women, the suppression of democratic participation and expression, and the use of arbitrary detention, torture and execution.” Garland said. 2019, “This activity posed such a threat to the government of Iran that the Chief Justice of Iran’s Revolutionary Courts warned that anyone who sent videos to the victim criticizing the regime would be sentenced to prison.”
According to him, a senior official of the Iranian intelligence service and three others were arrested in 2021 and charged with plotting the kidnapping of the victim. Three of the suspects are from Azerbaijan, a country that has close ties to Iran both geographically and culturally.
During Amirov’s first trial in New York, his attorney Michael Martin pleaded not guilty on his behalf. During the short court hearing, the defense did not immediately ask for bail. Amirov used the services of a Russian interpreter despite the fact that Russian is not his first language.
On Friday, Mehdiyev’s lawyer chose not to comment further. Earlier this month, Omarov was arrested in the Czech Republic. It was not clear if he was being assisted by legal counsel.
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The Czech police tracked down and arrested Omarov
In addition, “This case also highlights the evolving threat and increasingly brutal behavior emanating from Iran,” as stated by Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. She also mentioned that Iranian hackers are suspected of attacking energy companies and that members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have been charged in connection with an alleged conspiracy to assassinate a former US national security adviser.
FBI Director Christopher Wray has stated that in recent years, Iran’s intelligence and security agencies have increasingly used “transnational repression tactics” against political opponents and dissidents. He added that kidnapping and assassination attempts were used in Iran, but surveillance, cyber operations and intimidation of loved ones were also used.
“The Iranian government’s efforts to silence its critics are not limited to Iran’s borders,” Wray said. The United States has denounced Iran’s attack on protesters in Iran and Iran has responded by using force against peaceful protesters, increasing already heightened tensions between the two countries. Russia’s attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine are widely blamed on Iranian-supplied drones.
Alinejad told the Associated Press she hoped the brutality of Iranians planning to kill an American on American soil would prompt President Joe Biden to take the steps that some in Congress and elsewhere have called for, including the designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran. as a foreign terrorist organization.
“They are actually challenging the US authorities to see what the consequences will be if there is no punishment, and there is no reason for them to stop killing innocent Americans or innocent Iranians,” she said.
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Iran’s theocracy has been hunting Alinejad since he fled after the 2009 presidential election
Alinejad has been a target of Iran’s theocracy since fleeing the country during the controversial presidential election and subsequent crackdown in 2009.
She has been working as a contractor for Voice of America’s US-funded Farsi-language network since 2015. She is a well-known character on foreign Farsi-language satellite networks who have a negative attitude towards Iran. In October of this year (2019), she became a naturalized US citizen.
Women in Iran have filmed themselves for her “White Wednesday” and “My Stealthy Freedom” initiatives, in which they go out in public without a hijab and risk prosecution and fines. Since the murder of Mahsa Amini in September after she was imprisoned by the vice squad, she has also been a powerful voice for Iranian protesters. Meanwhile, court documents show that the three suspects are embedded in an Eastern European criminal network with ties to Iran.
The indictment alleges that Amirov, a group commander in Iran, was accused of going after her. Garland remained silent when asked to clarify the source of the warrants. Amirov contacted Omarov, who is stationed in Eastern Europe; together they flew Mehdiyev over from New York and paid him $30,000. US investigators claim Mehdiyev obtained a gun in July and kept an eye on the woman’s home.
Over the course of more than a week, he allegedly tried to photograph and videotape her in an attempt to lure her out. Mehdiyev once said he was at the crime scene.
However, on July 28, Alinejad fled her home after witnessing a strange occurrence. Soon after, a New York City police officer stopped Mehdiyev as he attempted to leave the scene in a vehicle. The rifle was all recovered by police along with magazines, cash and a black balaclava. Federal authorities arrested him for a firearms violation.
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