The US prevents a plot to assassinate a journalist critical of Iran in New York

By Dan Mangan -

The Department of Justice charged three members of an Eastern European criminal group with alleged ties to Iran on Friday with attempting to assassinate an Iranian-American journalist and activist who has been highly critical of the Iranian regime, it said. Attorney General Merrick Garland.

One of the men, Khalid Mediyev, a 24-year-old New York resident, was arrested in July with an AK-47-style assault rifle near the victim's Brooklyn home as he was about to "carry out the attack on the victim." ”according to an indictment unsealed Friday in Manhattan federal court.

The victim had already been the target of another kidnapping attempt, which led to a 2021 indictment against four people with ties to Iran's intelligence service, according to authorities.

Masih Alinejad, an exiled Iranian journalist, indicated in 2021 that she had been the target of that plot.

In a message posted this Friday on the social network she Twitter she said: "I just found out [...] that three men hired by the Iranian regime have been accused of trying to kill me on US soil."

"The Islamic Revolutionary Guard has been carrying out these terrorist acts for four decades. The Islamic republic is ISIS with oil," he wrote in the post, referring to the Islamic State, which is abbreviated ISIS.

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“This is the face of a person who was the target of an assassination plot,” he said in the video.

"Let me make it clear: I am not afraid for my life."

“Because I knew that killing, assassinating, hanging, torturing, raping is in the DNA of the Islamic republic.

And that is why I came to the United States of America, to practice my right, my freedom of expression, to give a voice to the brave people of Iran who are saying no to the Islamic Republic,” he remarked. 

The three defendants are Rafat Amirov, Polad Omarov and Khalid Mehdiyev.

Amirov was arrested in New York on Thursday, Mehdiyev was arrested in July and Omarov was arrested in the Czech Republic in early January.

The United States will request his extradition.

The 25-page indictment, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, says the three men prepared last year to murder an Iranian-American citizen on US soil.

The person, who was not identified by the Justice Department, wrote articles that were critical of Iran's treatment of women, protesters and other regime policies, according to the indictment.