Murder claim that will be talked about a lot in the US.
At a press conference, US Attorney General Garland gave information about a murder-for-hire conspiracy, which he claimed was behind Iran.
Stating that the three people charged in the incident are awaiting trial, Garland said: “These charges stem from an ongoing investigation into the Iranian government’s efforts to assassinate a journalist, author and human rights activist, a US citizen of Iranian ancestry, on American soil.” saying.
Garland, detailing the conspiracy plot in the indictment, argued that people in Iran charged Rafat Amirov, a member of an Eastern European criminal organization with suspected ties to Iran, for the murder, and that Amirov ordered Polad Omarov and Khalid Mehdiyev. to carry out the murder. murder.
Sharing the information that Mehdiyev was captured with an assault weapon and ammunition near the said journalist’s New York home in July 2022, Garland noted that Omarov was also in the custody of “foreign associates” to be extradited to the United States. .
“SHOWS HOW SERIOUS THE THREAT IS TO THE UNITED STATES FROM IRAN”
FBI Director Christopher Wray told the meeting that in just the last few years, actors linked to Iran carried out a ransomware attack on a children’s hospital in the US, attempted to assassinate the former national security adviser to the USA. US citizen journalist said he was planning an assassination.
“If that doesn’t show how serious the threat from Iran is to Americans here in the United States, I don’t know what else does,” Wray said. he said.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, in a written statement on the matter, described the Justice Department’s indictment as “a disturbing pattern of efforts to kill, torture, and intimidate Iranian government-backed activists, who defend the fundamental rights and freedoms of Iranians throughout the world”. the world.”
“There is no question that the United States will not allow Iran or other authoritarian regimes to export their efforts to suppress peaceful opposition through threats and intimidation against the legal residents of our country,” Sullivan said. he made the statement of it.
While Garland and Sullivan did not name the target in their statements, the journalist in question is believed to be Masih Alinejad, who came to light when it was claimed that Iranian intelligence agents wanted to kidnap him in 2021.
Alinejad, in her video shared on Twitter, admitted that she was the victim of a murder-for-hire plot, writing that on the same day she met with 12 FBI agents about the incident and learned that 3 people had been arrested.
Alinejad said: “Honestly, I don’t fear for my life because I knew that killing, hanging, torturing and raping is in Iran’s DNA.” the use.
WHAT HAPPENED?
It was claimed that Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-born American journalist living in New York, USA, wanted to be kidnapped on July 15, 2021 by Iranian intelligence agents.
In the indictment issued by the New York Federal Court, 4 Iranians were indicted for conspiracy to kidnap Alinejad, alleging that the defendants attempted to take Alinejad from a coastal neighborhood in Brooklyn to Venezuela in a military-style speedboat. to smuggle Alinejad into Iran. condition
In a statement by Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, the allegations at the time were likened to Hollywood-style scenarios and called “baseless and absurd.” (AA)