Man arrested with rifle outside New York home of Iranian-American journalist
By Luc Cohen and Joel Schectman
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -An Iranian-American journalist and girls’s rights activist stated it was “stunning” to study {that a} man had been arrested final week with a loaded AK-47 rifle outdoors her Brooklyn, New York, dwelling.
The journalist, Masih Alinejad, final 12 months was stated to be the goal of a Tehran-backed kidnapping plot. Alinejad has promoted movies of ladies violating Iran’s head protecting legislation to her hundreds of thousands of social media followers.
Khalid Mehdiyev spent two days final week outdoors the house, and at one level tried to open the door, an FBI agent wrote in a grievance filed in Manhattan federal courtroom on Friday. Police stopped him after he ran a cease signal and located the gun within the again seat of the automobile, in response to the grievance.
Alinejad stated she noticed the incident as an try on her life by Tehran.
“What the Iranian regime did, first attempting to kidnap me and now sending somebody right here attempting to kill me, it is a sample. It is a continuation of their manner of oppressing dissidents inside and outdoors Iran,” she instructed Reuters.
“I am not afraid of them and I will proceed my struggle towards gender apartheid. As a result of I did not do something incorrect, I am not a legal, my crime is simply giving voice to unvoiced folks,” she stated.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. Tehran has dismissed allegations of presidency involvement within the kidnapping plot as “baseless.”
The grievance didn’t establish Alinejad, however she confirmed to Reuters that the house in query was hers. She stated she was now in a protected location.
U.S. prosecutors final 12 months charged 4 Iranians, alleged to be intelligence operatives for Tehran, with plotting to kidnap Alinejad, who has contributed to the U.S. government-funded Voice of America Persian language service and experiences on human rights points in Iran.
Mehdiyev was charged with possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial quantity. A choose ordered him detained with out bail at a Friday afternoon listening to, courtroom data present. Mehdiyev’s lawyer declined to remark.
After his arrest, Mehdiyev initially instructed legislation enforcement brokers he didn’t know something in regards to the assault rifle and that he was in Brooklyn on the lookout for a brand new house, in response to the grievance.
He later instructed investigators that the AK-47 was his and that he was in Brooklyn “on the lookout for somebody,” the grievance learn. Mehdiyev then requested for a lawyer and declined to reply additional questions.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York and Joel Schectman in WashingtonEditing by Tomasz Janowski and Invoice Berkrot)
