The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that a “New York man” possessing an illegal assault-style rifle was arrested near the home of an Iranian dissident who was previously the target of an alleged kidnapping plot by government operatives of the Islamic Republic. The New York Post has an accessible version of the story here. The brief Post story adds several telling details.
The “New York man” is Khalid Mehdiyev. Mehdiyev was arrested in Brooklyn after New York Police Department officers pulled him over for running a stop sign and found a suitcase containing a loaded AK-47-style assault rifle. Fortunately, Mehdiyev has been charged in federal court, so he remains in custody. He hasn’t been released under New York’s bail law.
Mehdiyev is charged with one count of possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. He was long on ammo and cash. He had a suitcase with 66 rounds and $1,100 in cash.
These are the scary scenes capturing a man who tried to enter my house in New York with a loaded gun to kill me.
Last year the FBI stopped the Islamic Republic from kidnapping me.
My crime is giving voice to voiceless people. The US administration must be tough on terror. pic.twitter.com/XsxlFLSlOk— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) July 31, 2022
The FBI affidavit supporting the criminal complaint swears that surveillance video and other records show that over two days last week Mehdiyev parked for hours near a Brooklyn residence. The Journal notes that the complaint doesn’t specify the location or occupant of the residence, but reports that “the occupant of the home is Masih Alinejad, an Iranian dissident and human-rights activist who had previously been the target of an alleged kidnapping plot that led to criminal charges last year[.]” The Journal story is accompanied by a chilling photo of Mehdiyev taken by a security camera outside Alinejad’s Brooklyn’s residence drawn from the tweet above.
One can reasonably infer that this case is illustrative of Jay Solomon’s reporting in The Iran Wars. We covered the Iranian kidnap plot on Alinejad here and drew on Solomon’s book at that time. Please see the post on the kidnap plot. I assess with high confidence that the disregard of the Iranian regime for the sovereignty of the United States will have no impact on the diplomacy of the Biden administration.
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