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Maci Alinejad photographed on July 13, 2021 in Brooklyn. (Gardiner Anderson/New York Daily News)
The leader of an Eastern European organized crime syndicate accused in the botched murder-for-hire plot of Iranian dissident journalist Masih Alinejad has been extradited to the United States to stand trial, federal officials announced Wednesday.
Polad Omarov’s arrest means all three suspects accused of participating in the attempt on Alinejad’s life at his Flatbush, Brooklyn, home in July 2022 are now in federal custody. do.
Omarov was located and arrested in the Czech Republic in January 2023, and Wenezsey was extradited to the United States from Prague to await an appearance in Manhattan federal court. The Daily News was unable to locate his attorney.
“Porad Omarov allegedly brazenly attempted to kill an outspoken critic of Iran’s human rights abuses here on American soil,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damien Williams said in a statement. “The bold plan to kidnap and kill the victims demonstrates Iran’s aggressive policy of repression and violence against dissent.”
assassin
Ministry of Justice Polad Omarov
FBI Director Christopher Wray, speaking from Prague, said federal authorities had “held Iranian officials accountable for their brazen plot to assassinate American citizens on American soil.”
Alinejad, a journalist, author and human rights activist who has been a vocal critic of the Iranian regime’s oppression of women, thanked U.S. authorities and said she looked forward to testifying at trial.
“My second homeland saved me once again.” From the murderous regime in my country of birth, Iran,” Alinejad wrote to X.
Murder plot Iranian writer
Non-credit/AP Maci Alinejad’s doorbell camera captures Khalid Mehdiyev on his balcony on July 28, 2022.
According to the indictment, Omarov, 39, along with Rafat Amirov, 45, had a New York-based employee stalk Alinejad for 24 hours in the summer of 2022, and had a relationship with an “Iranian individual.” He is accused of instructing the suspect to be taken away.
Prosecutors say Amirov, who is based in Iran, asked Omarov to help kill him while in Europe and then recruited Yonkers-based Khalid Mehdiyev, 27, to buy concealed weapons. He claims to have sent $30,000 for expenses.
According to court documents, on July 28, 2022, several days into her sick day at work, Mehdiyev was “hastily preparing to carry out an attack” when a journalist, fearing for her safety, approached a neighbor. It is said that he ran away.
About 15 minutes later, police pulled Mehdiyev over and found an AK-47 assault rifle, 66 rounds of ammunition, $1,100 in cash and a ski mask in his car, court documents state. He has been in custody since then and pleaded not guilty to related charges in February last year. Amirov has been in custody since last year and has pleaded not guilty to related charges.
Alinejad, who fled Iran in 2009, was the target of a previous failed kidnapping plot. According to federal authorities, her attackers planned to take her by speedboat from the East River to Venezuela and lock her up in an Iranian prison.
See more at New York Daily News
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