Iranian man and 2 Canadians are charged in a murder-for-hire plot on US soil

By ERIC TUCKER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — An Iranian man who federal prosecutors say operates a criminal network that targets dissidents and activists abroad has been charged alongside a pair of Canadians with plotting to kill two people who had fled to the United States. Prosecutors say both of the intended victims lived in Maryland at the time of the plot and one was a defector from Iran. The plot was ultimately disrupted, the Justice Department says. The three men were charged in federal court in Minnesota. The criminal case unsealed Monday is part of what Justice Department officials have described as a troubling trend of transnational repression, in which operatives from countries including Iran and China single out dissidents and defectors for campaigns of harassment, intimidation and sometimes violence.