Alinejad stated she was house Thursday when federal brokers knowledgeable her in regards to the armed particular person.
“I used to be instructed by the FBI to ‘steer clear of your property,'” Alinejad instructed CNN by cellphone Sunday. “I used to be shocked. I could not even consider it. I used to be telling myself, ‘if I opened the door, what was I going to do?'”
NYPD officers arrested Khalid Mehdiyev Thursday afternoon as he drove away from the Brooklyn neighborhood after he did not cease at a cease signal, in accordance with a federal legal criticism obtained by CNN. It additionally stated NYPD officers discovered he was driving with no legitimate license. Regulation enforcement officers later discovered a suitcase within the backseat of his automobile containing an AK-47-style assault rifle loaded with a spherical within the chamber, a further second journal and $1,100 in $100 payments, in accordance with the criticism.
He’s charged with possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial quantity. Mehdiyev is about to be again in court docket August 12. CNN has reached out to his lawyer, Stephanie Marie Carvlin, for remark however has not heard again.
Regulation enforcement officers say they noticed Mehdiyev, a Yonkers resident, within the Brooklyn neighborhood on two events final week, Wednesday and Thursday, and in addition found that he’d been issued a parking ticket in the identical neighborhood the weekend earlier than, on July 23, in accordance with the criticism.
On Thursday morning Mehdiyev drove a grey Subaru Forester SUV with Illinois license plates and remained within the space for a number of hours the place he “behaved suspiciously,” the criticism states. On one event, Mehdiyev acquired out and in of his automotive a number of occasions, ordered meals supply service to his automotive, and approached a house within the neighborhood — the place Alinejad resides — peering contained in the home windows and making an attempt to open the entrance door, in accordance with the criticism.
Alinejad says she was on a Zoom name with Chairman of the Human Rights Basis, Garry Kasparov, and Venezuelan politician and opposition chief Leopoldo López when she came upon in regards to the armed particular person.
The activist shared a safety video on her official Twitter account of the person who she says federal brokers instructed her was the identical man arrested by police Thursday.
“These are the scary scenes capturing a person who tried to enter my home in New York with a loaded gun to kill me,” she tweeted, though no gun might be seen within the picture. “Final yr the FBI stopped the Islamic Republic from kidnapping me. My crime is giving voice to unvoiced folks. The US administration have to be robust on terror.”
Alinejad says she has spoken month-to-month with federal brokers for the reason that alleged kidnapping try final yr.
“I actually thought that the plot was over. I believed, ‘OK, I can give attention to my job’ — which I’m going to do, nothing goes to cease me,” she stated.
“I see this because the continuation of attempting to maintain Iranian ladies down,” the activist instructed CNN.
Alinejad, who steadily shares images and movies of what she says are “unvoiced” Iranian ladies by way of her social media accounts, says Iranian officers just lately warned her about persevering with her activism.
A spokesperson for Iran’s Headquarter for Promotion of Advantage and Prevention of Vice introduced in July that anybody who sends movies to Alinejad relating to the hijab or commits different anti-government actions is topic to a sentence of as much as 10 years in jail.
“It is the twenty first century: Sufficient is sufficient,” Alinejad stated. “I left my nation, Iran, to be secure, to be the voice for unvoiced folks. That is my crime. I wish to get pleasure from freedom of expression as an American.”
CNN’s Liam Rielly contributed to this report.
