US accuses 3 in plot to kill Iranian-American author

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department has charged three men in a conspiracy to kill an Iranian-American author and activist who has spoken out against human rights abuses in Iran, officials said on Friday.

The men, Rafat Amirov, 43, of Iran, Polad Omarov, 38, of the Czech Republic and Slovenia, and Khalid Mehdiyev, 24, of Yonkers, New York, were charged on a substitute charge of money laundering and contract killing in federal court in New York.

It’s the second time in two years that federal officials have disrupted a conspiracy against the unnamed victim in New York City.