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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEFriday, January 27, 2023 Members of Eastern European Organized Crime Group Allegedly Plotted to Murder a U.S. Citizen of Iranian Origin in New York City Who Has Publicly Opposed the Iranian GovernmentA 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.According to court documents, Rafat Amirov, aka Farkhaddin Mirzoev, aka Pᴎᴍ, aka Rome, 43, of Iran; Polad Omarov, aka Araz...

A New York federal court on Friday unveiled an indictment charging three men on murder-for-hire and money laundering charges for plotting the assassination of a U.S. citizen targeted by the Iranian government. All three men, associated with an Eastern European criminal organization, are in custody and will stand trial in the U.S., Attorney General Merrick Garland confirmed. The Department of Defense has not named the victim, though Fox News confirmed the individual is Masih Alinejad, who was the target of a 2021 kidnapping plot that was foiled by the FBI.

The Justice Department on Friday charged three Azerbaijani gangsters with plotting to murder a Brooklyn-based Iranian-American author and activist last year. The case stems from the July arrest of Khalid Mehdiyev, who was collared near Masih Alinejad’s home with an assault rifle after the beefy and bearded 24-year-old was filmed ringing Alinejad’s doorbell and lingering on her porch in a leafy part of the New York City borough. The other two men facing charges are 43-year-old Rafat “Rome” Amirov, a resident of Iran who was arrested on Jan. 26 in New York, and 38-year-old Polad “Haci Qaqa” Omarov, who was...

A Persian-language content moderator for Instagram and a former content moderator have said Iranian intelligence officials offered them money to remove Instagram accounts of journalists and activists. "I was offered 5,000 to 10,000 euros [$5,350-$10,700; £4,250-£9,000] to delete an account. They were especially after removing Masih Alinejad," the former reviewer told BBC Persian. Ms Alinejad is an Iranian-American author and activist. Last year, the US justice department said Iranian officials sought to lure the New York-based journalist to a third country to kidnap her. Both content moderators also accused some Iranian colleagues of exhibiting "pro-regime bias" when reviewing posts on...

Iranian intel agents sought to kidnap American journalist The State Department informed Congress late Tuesday that it would waive sanctions on Iran's illicit oil trade so that the country can access frozen funds from South Korea and Japan, the same day the Department of Justice announced charges on an Iranian spy network that sought to kidnap an American. The waiver, signed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, allows the "transfer of Iranian funds in restricted accounts to exporters in Japan and the Republic of Korea," according to a notification sent to Congress by the State Department. The waiver allows Iranian...

New York City prosecutors have charged four Iranian spies with plotting to kidnap a U.S. journalist from Brooklyn, smuggling her out of the city on a speedboat then sailing down to Venezuela before flying to Tehran, after she criticized the regime for its human rights abuses. Masih Alinejad, 44, a producer with Voice of America, told NBC News that she was the target of the plot. She was not named in court documents. The conspirators, described as intelligence officials, had also plotted to lure a person in the UK and three others in Canada to Iran, an indictment said. They...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged four Iranian nationals over an alleged plot to kidnap a Brooklyn-based journalist and human rights activist who published material critical of the Iranian government. A superseding indictment from the U.S. District Court from the Southern District of New York was unsealed Tuesday, revealing charges against an Iranian intelligence official, Alireza Shavaroghi Farahani, as well as "Iranian intelligence assets" Mahmoud Khazein, Kiya Sadeghi and Omid Noori.

Over the next few days, it will be hard to escape footage of huge crowds gathering in Iranian cities to mourn the death of Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian general killed by a U.S. drone strike. For anyone watching, I have one piece of advice: Don’t take what you’re seeing at face value. This past November, thousands of Iranians took to the streets across the country to protest against the regime, in the biggest challenge to the clerical rule in 40 years. According to Reuters, more than 1,500 people were killed by security forces, including units of Soleimani’s Revolutionary Guard, and...

A video by an Iranian activist shows a crowd in the Islamic Republic cheering as a women was dragged across a road and beaten. Her crime, according to the activist, Masih Alinejad, was dancing and not wearing the Islamic hijab required by law for any female older than 13, DailyMail.com reported. Robert Spencer, director of the website Jihad Watch, commented the woman is among the “real feminists, who are taking actual risks to stand up for women’s rights.” “Meanwhile, Leftist feminists in the West are donning the hijab, the symbol of oppression against which these Iranian women are rebelling, in...

Full title: Iranian women's rights activist condemns Western feminists for wearing the hijab in 'solidarity', saying: 'Calling the compulsory headscarf my country's culture is INSULTING' Masih Alinejad said female visitors to Iran were leaving activists 'on their own' She rejected the argument that visitors should wear the hijab 'out of respect' The issue has been thrown into new focus in the wake of the Christchurch attack