US charges three men with plotting to kill Iranian-American activist

The US Department of Justice has charged three men with an alleged conspiracy originating in Iran to kill an Iranian-American journalist, author and activist who spoke out against the country’s human rights abuses.

Rafat Amirov, 43, of Iran, Polad Omarov, 38, of the Czech Republic and Slovenia, and Khalid Mehdiyev, 24, of Yonkers, New York, were charged in New York federal court with money laundering and ordering a death.

The three men were being held and one was awaiting extradition to the United States.

Masih Alinejad, an Iranian opposition activist and writer in exile in New York City, confirmed to the Associated Press that she was the intended target.

“I’m not scared,” Alinejad told the AP after US officials announced the allegations.

“The Iranian regime thinks that by trying to kill me, it will silence me or silence other women. But it only makes me stronger, it makes me more powerful to fight for democracy and give a voice to brave women who are facing guns and bullets in the streets. streets to end the Islamic Republic,” said the activist.

Masih Alinejad said FBI officials read him the messages the conspirators exchanged, including one last one: “It will be done today.”

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment on the allegations and the Iranian state media has so far not acknowledged the alleged conspiracy.

Mehdiyev was arrested last year after he was caught driving through Brooklyn’s Masih neighborhood with a loaded “AK-47-style” gun and dozens of rounds of ammunition.