US charges 3 in plot to kill Iranian American author in New York
WASHINGTON — 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.
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. The three men were in custody and one was awaiting extradition to the U.S.
Masih Alinejad, an Iranian opposition activist, journalist and writer in exile in New York City, confirmed to The Associated Press that she was the intended target.
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.”
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.
Still, the case “follows a disturbing pattern of Iranian government-sponsored efforts to kill, torture and intimidate into silence activists for speaking out for the fundamental rights and freedoms of Iranians around the world,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.
Mehdiyev was arrested in 2022 after he was found driving around Alinejad’s neighborhood in the Brooklyn borough with a loaded “AK-47-style” rifle. Alinejad said at the time that authorities told her the man was looking for her, and that a home security video had caught him skulking outside her front door.
“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. He said “individuals in Iran” had tasked the defendants with carrying out the plot to kill the activist.
Rep. George Santos’ campaign committee is facing new questions from federal regulators after submitting paperwork listing a new treasurer who says he never took the job.
The Federal Election Commission sent a letter Thursday to the Devolder Santos for Congress campaign seeking clarity on the switch. It’s the latest scrutiny for the New York congressman who has been caught fabricating many elements of his life story.
The letter said the firstyear Republican’s campaign “may have failed to include the true, correct, or complete treasurer information” on paperwork Wednesday listing Thomas Datwyler as its new treasurer and custodian of records.
Five other political fundraising committees linked to Santos received the same letters after they, too, filed paperwork Wednesday listing Datwyler as their new treasurer.
Santos campaign:
Blood donor rules: The U.S. is moving to further ease restrictions on blood donations from gay and bisexual men and other groups that typically face higher risks of HIV.
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday announced draft guidelines that would do away with the
current three-month abstinence requirement for donations from men who have sex with men. Instead, all potential donors would be screened with a new questionnaire that evaluates their individual risks for HIV based on sexual behavior, recent partners and other factors.
If finalized, many gay and bisexual men in monogamous relationships would be able to donate blood for the first time in decades.
The U.S. and many other countries started blocking blood donations from gay and bisexual men during the early 1980s AIDS epidemic, aiming to prevent the spread of HIV through the blood supply.
Embassy attack: A gunman stormed the Azerbaijan Embassy in Iran’s capital Friday, killing its security chief and wounding two guards in an attack that spiked long-simmering tensions between the two neighboring countries.
Azerbaijan’s Foreign
Ministry said it would evacuate the diplomatic post, accusing Iran of not taking reported threats against it seriously in the past.
Tehran’s police chief, Gen. Hossein Rahimi, initially blamed the attack on “personal and family problems,” something quickly repeated across Iranian state media. But within hours Rahimi would lose his position as police chief after footage emerged that appeared to show a security force member doing nothing to stop the attack.
Azerbaijan borders Iran’s northwest and ethnic Azeris number over 12 million people in Iran, representing the Islamic Republic’s largest minority group.
There have been tensions between the two countries as Azerbaijan and Armenia have fought over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Azerbaijan also maintains close ties to Israel, which Tehran views as its top regional enemy.
Colo. shooting suspect: A man charged with killing 10 people at a Colorado supermarket nearly two years ago remains mentally incompetent to stand trial, a judge said Friday.
Court proceedings against Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 23, have been paused for more than a year after Judge Ingrid Bakke found him to be mentally incompetent in December 2021 and sent him to the state mental hospital for treatment.
During a hearing Friday in Boulder, Bakke said a report from the hospital reached the same conclusion. Doctors added that they still think Alissa has a “reasonable likelihood” of reaching competency, Bakke said.
Alissa is accused of opening fire outside and inside a King Soopers store in Boulder, killing customers, workers and a police officer. Investigators have not revealed a possible motive.
Spain bomb workshop:
Police in Spain discovered a bomb-making workshop in the home of a 74-year-old man charged with terrorism for sending six letters containing explosives to high-profile diplomatic and government targets, the Spanish Interior Ministry said Friday.
Spain’s National Court said earlier it had charged the retiree for allegedly sending letter bombs to the country’s prime minister and to the U.S. and Ukrainian embassies in Madrid. An employee at the Ukrainian Embassy was slightly injured while handling one of the letters.
An Interior Ministry statement issued as the suspect appeared in court Friday detailed items in the home that indicated meticulous planning had gone into making the letter bombs.
The letter bombs were sent in November and December and required the intervention of bombdisposal experts.