26 July 2023 :
(July 19, 2023) - The Czech Republic will extradite a Georgian national wanted in the United States over a plot to kill Iranian Dissident Masih Alinejad.
“I consider the extradition of Polad Omarov to the United States…the correct decision after considering all circumstances,” Czech Justice Minister Pavel Blazek said in a tweet on July 18.
Alinejad also took to Twitter to “thank the Czech Republic for allowing the extradition of Polad Omarov, who was indicted in a plot by the Islamic Republic to murder me, to the United States.”
“I also want to thank the US law enforcement agencies who will soon have the 3 men who were behind this nefarious plot behind bars,” she added.
Omarov was indicted in the United States in January together with two other members of a criminal gang that allegedly undertook a Tehran-backed plot to kill Alinejad.
Czech police detained Omarov in January, and the Prague City Court ruled in May he could be extradited to the United States.
Czech media said he could be extradited within days.
Omarov and alleged gang leader Rafat Amirov, who lives in Iran, led the plot to kill Alinejad at her home in New York last year, the US Department of Justice has said.
The pair sent US citizen Khalid Mehdiyev $30,000 to carry out the murder.
Amirov was taken into custody in the United States in January.
Mehdiyev was arrested near Alinejad’s New York home in July last year with a loaded AK-47 assault rifle.
The trio was charged with murder-for-hire, conspiracy and money laundering, charges that bring cumulatively up to 40 years in prison.
Alinejad has been a target of previous plots by Tehran.
In July 2021, the US authorities charged four Iranian intelligence operatives and one US resident for plotting to kidnap her and take her back to Iran.
