Jurors convict men accused of plotting to kill Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad

MANHATTAN (CN) — A federal jury on Thursday convicted Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, two purported members of the Russian mob, on all charges related to the 2022 assassination attempt on Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad.

After deliberating for just over three hours, the jurors found Amirov and Omarov guilty on all counts, including murder for hire and conspiracy. The case’s judge set their sentencing for September; they could face decades in prison.

Alinejad is a journalist and activist who fled Iran for the United States in 2009. Since then, she’s amassed a large social media presence for her outspoken criticism of Iran’s treatment of women. That activism deemed her an “enemy of the Iranian state,” according to federal prosecutors, and led to the nation’s government “desperately” wanting her killed.

She celebrated the verdict on Thursday, calling the jury’s ruling “a powerful gift from America to the Iranian people” and “a sign that justice is being served.”

“Iranian women and I won, you lost, you despicable Khamenei!” Alinejad said in a statement in Persian following the verdict, referencing Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei. “Yes, your corrupt and murderous army acted. But this time, they were humiliated. This time, your mercenaries were caught by the FBI. And now those you hired to kill me will spend years behind bars. You lost, Ali Khamenei.”

Alinejad added that, while Amirov and Omarov are now behind bars, “the masterminds of this crime still cling to power in Iran.”

Iran’s government has been suspected of numerous plots against Alinejad, including a failed 2018 attempt to lure her to Turkey for a kidnapping. The case against Amirov and Omarov is the first of those supposed schemes to go to trial.

“The government of Iran has targeted her for over a decade,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacob Gutwillig said at the trial’s opening on March 11.

Amirov and Omarov were “hired guns for the government of Iran,” the prosecutor said, claiming that the Iranian government offered the duo $500,000 for the hit. To carry out the plot, Gutwillig said they tapped fellow mobster Khalid Mehdiyev, an Azerbaijani who lived in Yonkers, New York, about a two-hour drive from Alinejad’s home in Brooklyn.

“For years, the government of Iran has attempted to silence an outspoken Iranian journalist, author, activist and critic of their regime through any means necessary, including harassment, violence, intimidation, and even attempted murder,” Matthew Podolsky, acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement Thursday. “Chillingly, the plot to murder this Iranian dissident culminated over 6,000 miles from Iran, on U.S. soil, right here in New York, when a hitman with an AK-47 camped outside her home to kill her … This verdict should send a clear message around the world: if you target U.S. citizens, we will find you, no matter where you are, and bring you to justice.”

Mehdiyev testified against the defendants in the weeklong trial as the government’s key witness. The would-be hitman told jurors that Omarov tasked him with the killing after Amirov got the gig from an Iranian government official. Mehdiyev was promised a chunk of the bounty, which, as he understood it, came from Iran.

But Mehdiyev said he botched the assassination when he got arrested on July 29, 2022. NYPD officers found an AK-47, 66 rounds of ammunition, and a ski mask in his car and charged him with attempted murder.

Alinejad testified that she came across Mehdiyev before he was arrested — the “gigantic” would-be hitman appeared to be shooting videos in her garden.

“He was in the sunflowers staring into my eyes,” Alinejad told jurors.

Mehdiyev testified that he stalked Alinejad for roughly a week before his arrest. During that time, he said he sent photos and videos of Alinejad’s home to Omarov. And WhatsApp messages appeared to show that Omarov sent Mehdiyev’s surveillance clips to Amirov — though Amirov’s lawyer argued there was no way to prove his client was actually on the receiving end of those messages despite the WhatsApp account belonging to Amirov.

Throughout the trial, defense attorneys attacked Mehdiyev’s credibility by pointing to his life of crime; Mehdiyev admitted in his testimony that he was behind numerous stabbings, arsons and extortions.

Michael Perkins, an attorney for Omarov, called Mehdiyev “a witness you wouldn’t buy a used car from.”

Alinejad spearheaded “My Stealthy Freedom” in 2014, an online campaign encouraging Iranian women to share videos of themselves defying the country’s mandatory head covering law.

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