Prosecutors: Armed man lurked near Iranian dissident’s home

NEW YORK — Masih Alinejad, an Iranian opposition activist and writer in exile in New York City, had already been identified as the target of an alleged kidnapping plot. Federal prosecutors in New York charged a man last week with driving around Masih’s Brooklyn neighborhood over the weekend with a loaded assault rifle and dozens of rounds of ammunition. Iranian officials called accusations “baseless and ridiculous.” Alinejad, who worked for years as a journalist in Iran and became a U.S. citizen in 2019, has long been targeted by its theocracy after fleeing the country following its disputed 2009 presidential election and crackdown. The complaint says Mehdiyev was seen lurking near Alinejad’s home last week and, after ordering food delivery to his vehicle, approached the residence and looked in through the windows and tried to open the front door. A later search of the car found a suitcase containing a rifle “loaded with a round in the chamber and a magazine attached, along with a separate second magazine, and a total of approximately 66 rounds of ammunition,” the papers say, adding, ”The serial number of the rifle appears to have been obliterated.” Initially, Mehdiyev claimed he was in the neighborhood looking for a room to rent, the papers say, and that he had borrowed the car he was driving and didn’t know about the gun.