Prosecutors say Iran offered ‘blood money’ to Russian mob in murder-for-hire plot

MANHATTAN (CN) — Federal prosecutors on Wednesday told a jury that Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, two supposed members of the Russian mob charged with the attempted murder for hire of Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad, took half a million dollars in “blood money” from Iranian officials to kill her.

For the past week, jurors heard evidence from the government that suggested Amirov and Omarov tapped a fellow mobster based in Yonkers, New York, to gun Alinejad down in her Brooklyn home in 2022. According to prosecutors, Iran paid the team $500,000 to make it happen.

Alinejad, who lives in exile in New York City, said her work has long drawn the ire of the Iranian government — particularly her ongoing social media campaign that encourages women to defy Iran’s mandatory hijab law.

It was that activism that prompted Iran to plot Alinejad’s murder on United States soil, prosecutors said during the trial’s closing arguments on Wednesday.

“For these so-called crimes, the Iranian regime has spent years attempting to harass, smear, intimidate and even kidnap Ms. Alinejad,” prosecutor Michael Lockard told the jury. “And when those efforts fail, the government of Iran put a $500,000 bounty on her head.”

The bounty was “blood money,” Lockard continued, cash that Amirov and Omarov were “all too eager to claim.”

Lockard pointed to the testimony of Khalid Mehdiyev, the hired gun-turned-federal cooperator who told the court that the defendants paid him to carry out the murder. He ultimately botched the hit, getting arrested by the NYPD before he was able to take a shot at Alinejad, but Lockard told jurors that Mehdiyev came “terrifyingly close” to completing his mission.

Last week, Mehdiyev testified that he stalked Alinejad for about a week, snapping photos and recording videos of her home, then passing those materials along to the defendants. But he was pulled over by police on July 29, 2022, after blowing a stop sign, and cops found a loaded AK-47, 66 rounds of ammunition and a ski mask in his car.

With those supplies, Mehdiyev said he had one plan: “Shoot the journalist, kill the journalist.”

The would-be hitman added that, prior to his arrest, he gave regular updates on his progress to Omarov via WhatsApp. Omarov then passed those details along to Amirov, who was in touch with the Iranian government about the plot, according to prosecutors.

But defense attorney Michael Martin, who represents Amirov, told the jurors on Wednesday that they cannot trust the word of Mehdiyev, who he called “the most untrustworthy of witnesses.”

“The government made a deal with a manipulative, violent, lying person,” Martin said, adding that Mehdiyev has admitted to “heinous acts” like arsons, stabbings and attempted murders.

Martin suggested that Mehdiyev only decided to cooperate with federal authorities to avoid jail time and get his family informant green cards. He reminded jurors that Mehdiyev was asked during his testimony if it was difficult to stab another person; Mehdiyev replied, “For some.”

“Easy to stab, easy to lie,” Martin said Wednesday.

Omarov’s defense attorney Elena Fast doubled down, telling the jury that Khalid’s testimony gives prosecutors “a big, sexy case,” that, on its face, is “absolutely absurd.”

“Khalid is a liar and he’s not to be trusted,” Fast said.

Fast argued that Omarov, who is accused of being the one to directly hire Mehdiyev for the assassination, never intended to have Alinejad killed at all. Instead, Fast claimed that Omarov was merely out to scam the Iranian government by taking his cut of the $500,000 and pretending to attempt the hit.

“There was no attempt to murder on Mr. Omarov’s behalf,” Fast said. “This was a scam. He wanted to make some money here.”

Omarov hired Mehdiyev, Fast claimed, because he knew Mehdiyev was a “clown” who couldn’t possibly execute the crime. Fast emphasized Mehdiyev’s day job as a pizza shop manager — he claimed to run a Peppino’s Pizza while living a life of crime — as an example of his dishonesty.

To demonstrate the absurdity, Fast put on an Eastern European accent and acted out a skit for the jury, in which she pretended to take orders at Peppino’s while simultaneously orchestrating a kidnapping in Ukraine — one of the crimes Mehdiyev copped to during his testimony. The moment amused some jurors.

“It’s not pizza by day and crime by night,” Fast said, adding that Mehdiyev “was not planning on killing Ms. Alinejad.”

Amirov and Omarov each face charges including murder for hire and attempted murder in aid of racketeering. A third man, Ruhollah Bazghandi, a senior member in Iran’s Revolutionary guard, is charged for facilitating the scheme on behalf of the Iranian government. But he remains at large.

Mehdiyev, even with his cooperation, faces a minimum of 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to crimes in both the Southern District of New York and the Eastern District of New York.

Jurors are expected to start deliberating on Thursday.

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