Third suspect in plot to kill Iranian American author on US soil extradited to face charges

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A suspect charged in a plot to kill an Iranian American author and activist has been extradited from the Czech Republic to face charges, the Justice Department said Wednesday.

Polad Omarov was arrested by Czech officials in January 2023, when charges were announced against him and two other men in the alleged plot to kill Masih Alinejad, an Iranian opposition activist who has spoken out against human rights abuses there. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Omarov’s extradition Wednesday, nearly 13 months after the indictment in the case was unsealed.

“The Department of Justice will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to undermine the rights to which every American citizen is entitled,” Garland said in the statement.

Phone calls to an attorney representing Omarov, who had spent the last year fighting extradition, rang unanswered. An email message seeking comment was also not immediately returned.

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The other two men, Rafat Amirov of Iran and Khalid