US charges 3 in plot to kill Iranian-American author
The US Justice Department announced the arrests of three people who allegedly undertook a Tehran-backed plot to assassinate dissident Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad.
The three were all members of an Eastern European organised crime group with ties to Iran, said Attorney General Merrick Garland.
"These charges arise out of an ongoing investigation into the government of Iran's efforts to assassinate on US soil a journalist, author and human rights activist who is a US citizen of Iranian origin," said Garland.
The announcement of the three arrests and indictment on attempted murder charges came six months after one of the men, Khalid Mehdiyev, was arrested outside Alinejad's New York home with a loaded AK-47 assault rifle.
Mehdiyev had been tasked by two leaders of the criminal gang, Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, according to Garland.
Amirov was arrested in the United States and Omarov was detained early this month in the Czech Republic and is now in US custody.
The indictment alleges that Amirov is a leader of the unnamed criminal gang and lives in Iran.
He directed Omarov to undertake the operation and Omarov directed Mehdiyev to carry it out.
Dual US-Iranian citizen Alinejad is known for her criticism of Iran's clerical regime, including its requirement that women veil themselves.
