Justice Department Announces Charges and New Arrest in Connection with Assassination Plot Directed from Iran

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

49% : According to court documents, Rafat Amirov, aka Farkhaddin Mirzoev, aka P??, aka Rome, 43, of Iran; Polad Omarov, aka Araz Aliyev, aka Polad Qaqa, aka Haci Qaqa, 38, of the Czech Republic and Slovenia; and Khalid Mehdiyev, 24, of Yonkers, New York, are charged with money laundering and murder-for-hire in a superseding indictment unsealed today in the Southern District of New York.
49% : Mehdiyev sent photographs and videos of the Victim's residence to Omarov for further sharing with Amirov and the plot's orchestrators in Iran.
44% : Beginning in approximately mid-July 2022, Amirov sent targeting information - which Amirov had received from other individuals in Iran - about the Victim and the Victim's residence to Omarov.
40% : Amirov, who resides in Iran, arrived in the Southern District of New York on Jan. 26, and will be arraigned on charges before Magistrate Judge Sarah L. Cave today.
39% : The Organization has ties to Iran and is violent, engaging in murders, kidnappings, assaults, and extortions, and members typically identify themselves with tattoos and other displays of eight-pointed stars.
38% : "This is the second time in the past two years that this office and our partners at the FBI have disrupted plots originating from within Iran to kidnap or kill this victim for the 'crime' of exercising the right to free speech, to independent political thought, and to advocating for the rights of the oppressed and disenfranchised inside Iran.
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," said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland.
35% : Amirov is a leader in an Eastern European criminal organization (the Organization) who resides in Iran.
35% : The Victim is a journalist, author and human rights activist, residing in Brooklyn, New York, who has publicized the Government of Iran's human rights abuses and suppression of political expression, including in connection with continuing protests against the regime across Iran.
34% : We will stop at nothing to identify, find, and bring to justice those who endanger the safety of the American people.""Today's indictment exposes 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: Iran," said Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco.
33% : Since at least July 2022, the Organization was tasked with carrying out the murder of a U.S. citizen of Iranian origin (the Victim), who previously has been the target of plots by the Government of Iran to intimidate, harass and kidnap the Victim.
32% : A federal court in New York today unsealed murder-for-hire and money laundering charges against three members of an Eastern European criminal organization for plotting the murder of a U.S. citizen who has been targeted by the Government of Iran for speaking out against the regime's human rights abuses.
30% : As recently as 2020 and 2021, Iranian intelligence officials and assets plotted to kidnap the Victim from within the United States for rendition to Iran in an effort to silence the Victim's criticism of the regime.

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