FBI arrests three men in Iranian murder-for-hire-plot of U.S. journalist, activist

At least three men have been arrested in a murder-for-hire plot allegedly sponsored by Iran that targeted a U.S. journalist and human rights activist who is a prominent critic of Tehran, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Friday. 

All three of the defendants are expected to stand trial, Garland added, with two of the men in U.S. custody and a third awaiting extradition. 

“These charges arise out of an ongoing investigation into the government of Iran’s efforts to assassinate, on U.S. soil, a journalist, author and human rights activist who is a U.S. citizen of Iranian origin,” Garland said during a press conference.

While Garland did not name the victim, it is believed to be Masih Alinejad, a prominent critic of the Islamic Republic who was earlier the target of a kidnapping plot that was disrupted by the FBI and revealed in an unsealed indictment in July 2021. 

Alinejad on Friday identified herself as the victim of the murder-for-hire plot, writing and posting a video on Twitter that she met with 12 FBI agents in New York where she learned that the three men were arrested. 

“This is the face of a person who was the target of an assassination plot,” Alinejad said in the video. 

“Let me make it clear, I am not scared for my life because I knew that killing, assassinating, hanging, torturing, raping is in the DNA in the Islamic Republic. That’s why I came to the United States of America to practice my right, my freedom of expression to give voice of brave people of Iran to say no to Islamic Republic.”