Attorney General Merrick Garland
...Attorney General of the U.S., who classifies indignant parents as domestic terrorists. The is the
respected legal scholarObama nominated for the Supreme Court...
said that the individuals had been charged for their roles in a conspiracy to assassinate Masih Alinejad, an outspoken critic of the Iranian regime.
"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
...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions...
A federal court in New York charged Rafat Amirov, Polad Omarov and Khalid Mehdiyev with murder-for-hire and money laundering allegations.
The three men were part of an Eastern European criminal organization, according to the Justice Department.
Rafat Amirov, from Iran, was arrested Thursday in the US, while Omarov, also known as Araz Aliyev, was arrested in the Czech Republic on Jan. 4. The US will request his extradition.
Mehdiyev was arrested in the US on July 29, 2022.
Following the Justice Department’s announcement, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan slammed the "disturbing pattern" of the Iranian government-sponsored efforts to kill, torture, and intimidate into silence
...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979...continues to pose a threat to the US through its proxies and networks.
She said the indictment exposed a dangerous menace to national security - "a double threat posed by a vicious transnational crime group operating from what it thought was the safe haven of a rogue nation."
She also pointed out that over the last year, the US had charged members of Iran’s IRGC with a plot to murder former US national security advisor John Bolton.
Iran continues to threaten the lives of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former US Special Envoy for Iran Brian Hook. Both former diplomats continue to receive federal protection as requested by the State Department to the ongoing threats.