Two men identified by prosecutors as members of the Russian mob have been convicted in New York City for plotting to kill Iranian-American journalist and activist Masih Alinejad in a murder-for-hire scheme financed by Iran's government.
The verdict was returned on March 20, ending a two-week trial that included testimony about how Iran targeted Alinejad, 48, for her online campaigns encouraging Iranian women to defy Iran’s law requiring women to cover their hair in public.
Prosecutors said Iranian intelligence officials first plotted in 2020 and 2021 to kidnap Alinejad and move her to Iran to silence her criticism of the government. When that failed, Iran offered $500,000 for her to be killed, prosecutors said.
Assistant US Attorney Michael Lockard told the jury on March 19 that the “Iranian government” had set the award to “fund the plan to silence” Alinejad.
Alinejad called the verdict “a powerful gift from the American government” to the people of Iran because it shows that justice is beginning to be served.
“I am relieved that after nearly three years, the men who plotted to kill me have been found guilty. But make no mistake, the real masterminds of this crime are still in power in Iran,” she told The Associated Press. “Right now, I am bombarded with emotions. I have cried. I have laughed. I have even danced.”
Leslie R. Backschies, who heads the FBI's New York office, said the verdicts show that the “Iranian government's shameless conduct and attempt to violate our laws and assassinate a critic of their human rights atrocities will not be tolerated.”
Prosecutors said the convicted men, Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, were members of the Russian mob. Defense lawyers argued at trial that their clients were innocent and evidence was flawed.
“We respect the jury's verdict, but plan on filing an appeal on Mr. Omarov's behalf,” Elena Fast, an attorney for Omarov, was quoted by the AP as saying in an e-mail. A lawyer for Amirov did not immediately respond to the AP’s request for comment on the verdict.
In court on March 19 his lawyer, Michael Martin, said there was no doubt "Iran targeted Alinejad, but his client was not part of any plot."
SEE ALSO: Court Documents Allege Iranian-Backed Plot To Assassinate Trump, DissidentsAlinejad testified last week that she came to the United States in 2009 after she was banned from covering Iran's disputed presidential election and after the newspaper where she worked was shut down.
After establishing herself in New York City, she built an online audience of millions and launched a campaign that told Iranian women to send photos and videos of themselves exposing their hair when the morality police were not around.
She ultimately inspired women to take to the streets in Iran on Wednesdays to peacefully protest, leading the government to arrest hundreds of women. The crackdown only caused her following to grow.
Prosecutors said that by 2022, the Iranian government enlisted organized crime figures to kill Alinejad.
Khalid Mehdiyev, a former member of the Russian mob, testified that he was hired as the hitman.
Mehdiyev, who cooperated with prosecutors after pleading guilty to multiple crimes, said he bought an AK-47 to kill Alinejad in July 2022, but the plan was foiled when his car was stopped by police and the gun was found. Mehdiyev, like Amirov and Omarov, are citizens of Azerbaijan.
American officials have accused Iran of backing several assassination plots in the United States, including one against President Donald Trump during his presidential campaign last year.
In a separate case, US prosecutors in 2022 charged a man in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) with plotting to kill former US national-security adviser John Bolton. Tehran has denied being behind any such plots.
The plots came after Iranian officials vowed to exact revenge against Trump and others over the 2020 drone strike that killed prominent IRGC General Qassem Soleimani.