Three men have been arrested for a murder-for-hire plot that targeted a U.S. journalist and human rights activist of Iranian origin who has been a prominent critic of Iran, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Friday. The same victim, who lives in Brooklyn, New York, had been the target of an earlier kidnapping plot, which led the Department of Justice in 2021 to obtain an indictment against four people who had ties with Iranian intelligence. Masih Alinejad, an exiled Iranian journalist, identified herself in 2021 as the target of that kidnapping plot. The latest plot began in 2022, when members of an Eastern European criminal organization with ties to Iran were enlisted to assassinate the unidentified victim, who lives in Brooklyn, New York, an indictment alleges. That group's participation in the plot was directed by a man named Rafat Amirov, the group's leader, who lives in Iran and "who was tasked with targeting the Victim by individuals in Iran," the indictment charges.

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