A Manhattan Jury Convicts Two Men in Alinejad Assassination Plot
Two individuals face conviction for conspiring to murder an Iranian-American journalist in New York City.
In a thrilling turn of events, a federal court in New York has convicted two men, Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, for plotting to assassinate high-profile Iranian American journalist Masih Alinejad at her home in New York City. This verdict comes after a two-week trial filled with dramatic testimony, including eyewitness accounts by Alinejad herself.
According to prosecutors, the convicts, who are crime bosses in the Russian mob, were orchestrating the murder-for-hire scheme, financed by Iran's government. However, their lawyers contended that their clients are innocent, and the trial evidence was flawed.
Alinejad, 48, has been a target for Iran due to her online campaigns encouraging women there to flout public hair-covering laws. The Iranian government offered half a million dollars for Alinejad's July 2022 assassination, following their failed attempts to harass, smear, and intimidate her.
The U.S. government has previously accused Iran of sponsoring several assassination plots in the United States, one of which targeted former U.S. President Donald Trump during his campaign last year. Iran has consistently denied any involvement in such plots.
Alinejad testified last week that she had come to the U.S. in 2009 due to her press coverage being banned and her newspaper being shut down. She built an online audience of millions and launched her "My Stealthy Freedom" campaign, encouraging Iranian women to share photos and videos of them exposing their hair during appropriate times. This led to women peacefully protesting in Iran's streets every Wednesday, which resulted in numerous arrests.
During the trial, prosecutors claimed that by 2022, the Iranian government had recruited organized crime figures, including Amirov and Omarov, to carry out the assassination. Khalid Mehdiyev, a member of the Russian mob, testified that he had been hired as the hitman. Like Amirov and Omarov, Mehdiyev is from Azerbaijan, sharing a border and cultural ties with Iran.
Mehdiyev, who cooperated with prosecutors after pleading guilty to multiple crimes, revealed that he had bought an AK-47 for the assassination but was thwarted when his car was stopped by police, and the gun was discovered in the back seat in July 2022. A doorbell camera at Alinejad's home recorded Mehdiyev standing on her front porch.
Prosecutors have kept the investigation open. In October, they announced charges against a senior Iranian military official and three others, none of whom are currently in custody. In a separate case, U.S. prosecutors charged a man in Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard with plotting to kill former U.S. national security adviser John Bolton.
Iranian officials have threatened revenge against President Trump and members of his former administration in response to the 2020 drone strike that killed the prominent Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad.
Alinejad revealed that since the assassination plot was exposed, she has had to move nearly two dozen times, sometimes feeling guilty about the lack of safety also experienced by her followers in Iran. However, this only strengthens her resolve to give a voice to voiceless people.
The convicted men, Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, were associates of a paramilitary group, offering to plot the assassination of Masih Alinejad, as testified by Khalid Mehdiyev. Alinejad, a victim of numerous attempts to intimidate and silence her, had previously moved multiple times due to the ongoing threats against her.
