3 charged in plot to kill Iranian-American author Masih Alinejad in New York City

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

51% : She is a prominent figure on Farsi-language satellite channels abroad that critically view Iran, and she has worked as a contractor for U.S.-funded Voice of America's Farsi-language network since 2015.
49% : Along with kidnapping and assassination plots, tactics have included surveillance, cyber operations and intimidation of family and friends in Iran, he said.
48% : She said FBI officials had read her the messages that the plotters exchanged between themselves, including a final one: "It's going to be done today."READ MORE: Masih Alinejad, Iranian-American journalist, says man armed with AK-47 showed up at her Brooklyn home in alleged murder plotIran's mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the charges.
48% : Amirov, a leader of the group living in Iran, "was tasked" with targeting her by unnamed people there, the indictment states.
44% : 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 an indictment unsealed in federal court in New York.
44% : Alinejad, who worked for years as a journalist in Iran, long has been targeted by its theocracy after fleeing the country following its disputed 2009 presidential election and crackdown.
43% : Her "White Wednesday" and "My Stealthy Freedom" campaigns have seen women film themselves without head coverings, or hijabs, in public in Iran, which can bring arrests and fines.
41% :READ MORE: Iranian American journalist Masih Alinejad targeted in kidnapping plot in Brooklyn, according to indictmentAll three defendants are natives of Azerbaijan, which shares a border and cultural ties with Iran.
40% : "This case also highlights the evolving threat and the increasingly brazen conduct emanating from Iran," said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.
39% : He said "individuals in Iran" had tasked the defendants with carrying out the plot to kill the activist.
39% :"The Iranian government's efforts to silence its critics aren't confined to the borders of Iran," Wray said.
37% : "The victim publicized the Iranian government's human rights abuses, discriminatory treatment of women, suppression of democratic participation and expression and use of arbitrary imprisonment, torture and execution," Garland said.
36% : She also has been amplifying the voices of those protesting in Iran since the September death of Mahsa Amini, who died after being arrested by the morality police.
35% : The three defendants, meanwhile, are members of an Eastern European criminal organization that has ties to Iran, according to court papers.
33% : The Justice Department has charged three men in an alleged plot that originated in Iran to kill an Iranian American author and activist who has spoken out against human rights abuses there, officials said Friday.
33% : "The government of Iran has previously targeted dissidents around the world, including the victim, who oppose the regime's violations of human rights," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in announcing the charges.
33% : In 2019, "this activity posed such a threat to the government of Iran that the chief judge of Iran's Revolutionary courts warned that anyone who sent videos to the victim criticizing the regime would be sentenced to prison."
32% : While the man who allegedly orchestrated the plot lives in Iran, the indictment does not directly accuse the country's theocracy of being behind the alleged murder-for-hire.
32% : Iran also is accused of providing Russia with drones that are playing a significant role in Russian attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine.
26% : Tensions between the United States and Iran are even higher than usual, with the Biden administration's attempts to revive a 2015 deal limiting Iran's nuclear program falling apart and the U.S. denouncing Iran's targeting of protesters there.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.