Manhattan federal prosecutors on Friday announced a sweeping multi-count indictment against three Eastern European gangsters they say plotted to kill a Brooklyn-based journalist critical of the authoritarian Iranian regime.
Rafat Amirov, 43, Khalid Mehdiyev, 24, and Polad Omarov, 38, are accused of stalking and making multiple attempts to kill Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad at her home in July.
The feds say that included an unsuccessful attempt to lure Alinejad out of her house by asking for flowers in her garden. Alinejad, a journalist, author, and human rights activist who has been the subject of previous kidnapping attempts by the Iranian government, didn’t take the bait.
