Iran critic in U.S. targeted by murder plot, DOJ says
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announces that the U.S. Justice Department has filed an anti-trust lawsuit against Alphabet’s Google over allegations that the company abused its dominance of the digital advertising business, during an appearance in the Justice Department’s briefing room in Washington, January 24, 2023.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
Three men have been arrested for a murder-for-hire plot that targeted a U.S. journalist and human rights activist of Iranian origin who has been a prominent critic of Iran, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Friday.
The same victim, who lives in Brooklyn, New York, had been the target of an earlier kidnapping plot, which led the Department of Justice in 2021 to obtain an indictment against four people who had ties with Iranian intelligence, officials said.
Masih Alinejad, an exiled Iranian journalist, identified herself in 2021 as the target of that kidnapping plot. Alinejad did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The latest plot began in 2022, when members of an Eastern European criminal organization with ties to Iran were enlisted to assassinate the victim, according to an indictment, which does not identify the victim by name.
That group’s participation in the plot was directed by a man named Rafat Amirov, the group’s leader, who lives in Iran and “who was tasked with targeting the Victim by individuals in Iran,” the indictment charges.
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