Three members of an Eastern European criminal group with ties to Iran have been indicted for plotting to murder a U.S. journalist and human rights activist who was critical of the Iranian regime, the Justice Department announced Friday.
“The victim in this case was targeted for exercising the rights to which every American citizen is entitled,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said during a press conference Friday. “The victim publicized the Iranian government’s human rights abuses, discriminatory treatment of women, suppression of democratic participation and expression, and use
“The conduct charged in today’s case shows just how far Iranian actors are willing to go to silence critics of the Iranian regime,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said.
The men — Rafat Amirov, Polad Omarov and Khalid Mehdiyev — were charged with murder-for-hire and money laundering for their role in a Tehran-backed plot to kill Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American journalist, on U.S. soil. One of the defendants has been detained since his arrest last July, another is in custody of foreign partners pending extradition, and the third is in U.S. custody and will be presented today in court, Garland said.
of arbitrary imprisonment, torture and execution.”
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