A man was arrested carrying a loaded AK-47 rifle in a possible plot to assassinate an Iranian-American journalist and critic of the regime in Tehran, US news sources reported on Monday.

Masih Alinejad, a journalist at the Voice of America (VOA) Persian Service, was previously the target of an attempted kidnapping. She has shared videos of women in Iran publicly disobeying headscarf rules.

The FBI is investigating whether the arrested suspect was involved in a plot to neutralize or kill Alinejad, US news channel NBC reported.

Alinejad herself shared security camera footage of the suspect at her front door on Twitter on Sunday, saying, "My crime is giving voice to voiceless people. The US administration must be tough on terror."

Suspect arrested after running a light

The arrested man was taken in by police after a traffic stop. They said he ran a stop sign, and when they checked his vehicle, they found a gun on the back seat, according to the complaint filed by the FBI.

He was charged with possessing a firearm without a proper serial number. At his Friday hearing, the judge ordered him to be held without bail.

The suspect initially claimed that he knew nothing about the weapon and said he was just in the area looking for an apartment.

But later he told the investigators that he owned the gun and that he was "looking for someone" in Brooklyn, according to the complaint.

Iran's dealings with dissidents abroad

Alinejad has expressed criticism of Iran's religious regime and especially rules on compulsory headscarves.

In July last year, US prosecutors charged four Iranian spies with trying to kidnap Alinejad from her home in Brooklyn and take her to Venezuela, a country friendly with Iran.

"What the Iranian regime did, first trying to kidnap me and now sending someone here trying to kill me, it's a pattern. It's a continuation of their way of oppressing dissidents inside and outside Iran," she told Reuters.

Investigators said that they had also tried to lure her to the Middle East before that.

In 2019, an Iranian journalist living in exile in France was lured to Iraq where he was arrested and handed over to Iran. He was convicted of spying and was executed in December 2020.

ab/aw (Reuters, AFP)