Justice department says eight were charged ‘for their efforts to silence and kill a US citizen because of her criticism of the Iranian regime’

A general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has been charged in New York in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate a dissident Iranian American journalist.

The target of the alleged assassination plot was not named in unsealed court documents, but she has been widely identified as Masih Alinejad, who lives in New York.

“The justice department has now charged eight individuals, including an Iranian military official, for their efforts to silence and kill a US citizen because of her criticism of the Iranian regime,” said Merrick Garland, the attorney general.

“We will not tolerate efforts by an authoritarian regime like Iran to undermine the fundamental rights guaranteed to every American,” Garland said in a statement.

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  • tortillaPeanuts@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    8 days ago

    I don’t think the article you linked is sufficient evidence for her being an islamophobe. Reading some of her history, her opposition to the bill seems based on paranoia that the Iranian government could use it as an avenue to attack her or other women’s rights activists from the region.

    I say it’s based on paranoia because the Iranian government has gone to great lengths to punish her:

    Amnesty International condemned the relentless persecution. “Arresting the relatives of an activist in an attempt to intimidate her into silence is a despicable and cowardly move,” a representative for the organization said. Alinejad’s brother remains in jail. Article

    She could have been wrong about the bill, the Biden white house put out a general statement of support for it, and it passed in the house, but it looks more like self-preservation based on paranoia than islamophobia to me.