By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell Book
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN
SDNY MAG COURT EXCLUSIVE, July 29 - A man from Azerbaijan has been arrested with an AK-47 style assault rifle surveilling the Brooklyn home of an Iranian journalist, Inner City Press learned on July 29.
In the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York past 5 pm, a detention or release proceeding was held by Magistrate Judge Sarah Cave on defendant Khalid Mehdiyev. He was heavy-set and in a black T-shirt, escorted in by two US Marshals. Inner City Press was the only media there.
Assistant US Attorney Matthew Hellman described Mehdiyev in a borrower car with 66 rounds of ammunition and the gun, outside the house of a person he described as an Iranian dissident and human rights activist who was previously the targets of an indicted plot by Iranian government operatives to kidnap her.
Inner City Press' research upon leaving the Magistrates Court found that Alireza Shavaroghi Farahani, Mahmoud Khazein, Kiya Sadeghi and Omid Noori, all living in Iran — were accused of conspiring to kidnap a Brooklyn journalist, human rights activist who has been critical of the Iranian regime, with a fifth, Niloufar Bahadorifar, accused of providing financial support. The target was identified as Masih Alinejad.
Mehdiyev's assigned Criminal Justice Act lawyer argued that he faces only five years in prison on the gun charge, and for release. But Judge Cave found his a danger, and a flight risk, and ordered him detained.
The preliminary hearing was set in two weeks.
The case is US v. Mehdiyev, 22-mj-6185 (Cave)
***
Your support means a lot. As little as $5 a month helps keep us going and grants you access to exclusive bonus material on our Patreon page. Click here to become a patron.
