The Justice Department has charged three men as part of an Iran-backed plot to kill an Iranian American author and activist who has spoken out against human rights abuses, officials said Friday.
The men, Rafat Amirov, 43, of Iran, Polad Omarov, 38, of the Czech Republic and Slovenia and Khalid Mehdiyev, 24, of Yonkers, New York, were charged with money laundering and murder-for-hire in a superseding indictment unsealed in federal court in New York. The three men were in custody and one was awaiting extradition to the U.S.
Though authorities didn't identify the alleged target by name, the circumstances described in court documents closely resembled those of Masih Alinejad, an Iranian opposition activist and writer in exile in New York City.