A high-ranking member of an Iranian terror group was among four men charged in a plot to murder an Iranian-American author and activist in the US.
Ruhollah Bazghandi — who is not currently in custody because he lives in Iran — was charged in an updated indictment which accuses him of attempting to assassinate Masih Alinejad.
Alinejad, a prolific journalist and activist who has been critical of the Iranian government, has endured numerous attempts on her life since fleeing the Islamic Republic in exile in 2009.
Alinejad lives in New York City but has frequently bounced between safe houses.
Although the journalist was not named in the rewritten indictment Tuesday, she confirmed to the Associated Press that she is the target referenced in the court papers.
Bazghandi is a brigadier general in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which is designated by the US, Canada, Israel and other nations as a terrorist organization.
He also once served as the group’s counterintelligence chief, according to the AP.
Three others were also charged along with Bazghandi in the updated indictment.
Five others were previously charged in the alleged plot, including three people who are in custody.
In jubilant video posted on X alluding to recently “meeting” with the FBI and Justice Department, Alinejad, wearing a flower in her signature mane of hair, gleefully proclaimed, “I love my life!”
She also took a direct shot at Iran’s supreme leader, Imam Sayyid Ali Khamenei, saying, “Every time you and your IRGC are humiliated, it’s a victory for us. I’ve moved 21 times between safe houses but I’m stronger than ever,” she wrote defiantly.
As a high-profile critic of the rogue state’s governance and leadership, Alinejad has stared down numerous assassination attempts by killers unleashed by the regime.
In early 2023, the Justice Department also charged three Iran-backed Azerbaijani gangsters with a plot to murder Alinejad the previous year.
The case stemmed from the arrest of Khalid Mehdiyev in July of that year, who was busted near Alinejad’s home in Brooklyn with an assault rifle and was filmed ringing her doorbell and lying in wait on her porch.
Two men charged in the plot include 43-year-old Rafat “Rome” Amirov, a resident of Iran who was arrested Jan. 26, 2023 in New York, and 38-year-old Polad “Haci Qaqa” Omarov, who was arrested in the Czech Republic on Jan. 4 that same year.
Amirov is purportedly a leader of an Eastern European criminal organization whose members are identified by tattoos of eight-pointed stars.
Omarov and Mehdiyev also allegedly are members of the group.
“I want to tell you that the Iranian regime thinks by trying to kill me, they will silence me, or silence other women,” she told AP after the announcement of the men’s arrests.
“But they only strengthen me, make me more powerful to fight for democracy and give voice to brave women who are facing guns and bullets in the streets to get rid of the Islamic Republic.”
With Post wires