Two convicted in murder-for-hire plot of US-Iranian journalist
Two men have been convicted in a murder-for-hire scheme targeting an Iranian-American journalist at her Brooklyn home.
A federal jury in New York found Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov guilty of plotting to assassinate reporter Masih Alinejad in July 2022. They face decades in prison.
Prosecutors said Iran's government funded the plot and targeted Ms Alinejad over her campaigns against the mandatory wearing of headscarves for Iranian women.
Iran's government, which has been accused in several plots targeting Ms Alinejad, has called such allegations "ridiculous and baseless".
The two men, who prosecutors said were Russian mobsters, were found guilty on charges that included murder for hire, firearms possession and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The Manhattan jury returned their verdict after deliberating for just over three hours following a two-week trial.
Prosecutors said Iran attempted several times over the years to silence and threaten Ms Alinejad, including a failed kidnap plot that led to the arrest of four Iranian intelligence officials in 2021.
When those efforts failed, they put a $500,000 (£385,793) bounty out for her killing, the US government said.
After the verdict, Ms Alinejad, who worked for Voice of America after leaving Iran in 2009, said she was "bombarded with emotions".
"I have cried, I have laughed, I have even danced. Because today is not just about my survival; it is about the defeat and humiliation of a regime that believes it can silence its critics with bullets," said Ms Alinejad, who was not in court, in a statement.
"They failed. I am still here. And I will keep fighting until every criminal in that regime faces their reckoning."
US accuses Iranians of plotting to kidnap exiles
Masih Alinejad: A revolution for Iranian women?
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
14 minutes ago
- New York Post
Trump admin sanctions El Chapo's sons and offers $10 million reward for their capture
The Trump administration imposed sanctions on Monday against the two fugitive sons of jailed Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman and offered up a $10 million reward for information leading to their arrests. Archivaldo Ivan Guzman and Jesus Alfredo Guzman run the 'Los Chapitos' faction of Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel, which has been at 'the forefront of trafficking fentanyl into the United States' since their father's imprisonment in the US, according to the State Department. Los Chapitos' ability to procure fentanyl precursor chemicals, combined with its penchant for violence and control of secret laboratories in Sinaloa, has allowed the syndicate to dominate the illicit drug trade. 3 El Chapo's sons run the 'Chapitos' faction of the Sinaloa Cartel. AP 'Los Chapitos is a powerful, hyperviolent faction of the Sinaloa Cartel at the forefront of fentanyl trafficking into the United States,' Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement announcing the sanctions. 'At the Department of the Treasury, we are executing on President Trump's mandate to completely eliminate drug cartels and take on violent leaders like 'El Chapo's' children,' Bessent added. 'Treasury is maximizing all available tools to stop the fentanyl crisis and help save lives.' The sanctions will block all property and interests in property and entities owned directly or indirectly by the Guzman brothers. 3 Archivaldo Ivan Guzman and his brother are both wanted by the US government for drug trafficking. Archivaldo and Jesus were also designated as targets under the State Department's Narcotics Rewards Program. The department has offered a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of each brother. 'We will continue to protect our nation by keeping illicit drugs off our streets and disrupting the revenue streams funding Mexico-based cartels' violent and criminal activity, ' State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement. 'Today's action further demonstrates the Trump Administration's unwavering commitment to eliminating cartels and ensuring the safety of the American people.' 3 The Trump administration has offered a $10 million reward for the capture of Jesus Alfredo Guzman and his brother. Additionally, the Treasury Department sanctioned several businesses controlled by Mexican businessman Jose Raul Nunez Rios and his make-up artist wife, Sheila Paola Urias Vazquez. The couple is believed to be financing an important Los Chapitos cell in Mazatlan, Mexico, which has been waging war against rival cartels and is engaged in drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping and money laundering, according to the Trump administration. The sanctions follow the Trump administration's designation of the Sinaloa Cartel as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorist in February. El Chapo was convicted in 2019 on multiple conspiracy counts and sentenced to life in prison. He is serving his sentence at ADX Florence, a federal supermax prison in Colorado.
Yahoo
19 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Congressman Mark Green retiring from U.S. House of Representatives
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Tennessee's 7th District Congressman, Mark Green, will retire from the U.S. House of Representatives, the federal lawmaker announced Monday. In a statement, Rep. Green announced he was retiring from Congressional service due to taking a private sector position that was 'too exciting to pass up.' Per his statement, Green has informed Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) he will resign as soon as the House votes on the reconciliation package. 📧 Have breaking news come to you: → He called his time in Congress 'the honor of a lifetime,' touting 'historic tax cuts,' sweeping border security legislation and pro-life legislation as some of his proudest accomplishments in Washington. Green initially planned to exit public life at the end of his previous term, announcing last February he wouldn't seek a fourth term in office; however, he quickly backtracked just four weeks later. He easily defeated a challenge from former Nashville mayor Megan Barry in the Nov. 5, 2024, general election. Green's full statement reads as follows: It is with a heavy heart that I announce my retirement from Congress. Recently, I was offered an opportunity in the private sector that was took exciting to pass up. As a result, today I notified the Speaker of the House of Representatives that I will resign from Congress as soon as the House votes once again on the reconciliation package. It was the honor of a lifetime to represent the people of Tennessee in congress. They asked me to deliver on the conservative values and principles we all hold dear, and I did my level best to do so. Along the way, we passed historic tax cuts, worked with President Trump to secure the border, and defended innocent life. I am extremely proud of my work as Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, and want to thank my staff, both in my seventh district office, as well as the professional staff on that committee. I have now served the public for nearly four decades. The Army took me to Iraq and Afghanistan. The people sent me to the Tennessee legislature and the halls of Congress. Along the way, I have often remarked on the strength of the men and women I have served with. I know that the integrity, decency, and faith of the American people are what powered us for the first 250 years, and will power us for another 250 and beyond. I can proudly look back at my time in Congress and the success that we have accomplished on behalf of Tennesseans and the American people. I am grateful to Speaker Johnson and House Leadership for placing their trust in me to chair the Committee on Homeland Security, lead the effort to impeach former Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and to pass H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, the strongest border security legislation in history to ever pass the House. However, my time in Congress has come to an end. Though I planned to retire at the end of the previous Congress, I stayed to ensure that President Trump's border security measures and priorities make it through Congress. By overseeing the border security portion of the reconciliation package, I have done that. After that, I will retire, and there will be a special election to replace me. I have no doubt that my colleagues in this Congress will continue to strengthen the cause of freedom. May God bless them, and the United States of America. Rep. Mark Green (TN-07) Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
19 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Perfect storm as Trump's mass deportation drive collides with city of immigrants
This weekend, tensions boiled over in the Los Angeles area after a week of immigration sweeps in the region sparked violent protests against the Trump administration and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. President Donald Trump's decision to send 700 US Marines and 2,000 National Guard troops to the Los Angeles area to support the federal response to the unrest has opened a volatile chapter in his mass deportation campaign. The location of the raids and subsequent protests – a liberal-leaning city in a state controlled by Democrats – also gave the White House an ideal public foil as it seeks to show progress on removing illegal immigrants and instilling law and order. Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat and prominent critic of the president, wrote on X that the troop deployment was a "deranged fantasy of a dictatorial President". The raids in America's second-biggest city are unfolding against the backdrop of an aggressive push to raise arrest and deportation numbers, as the administration has been disappointed with its current pace. ICE has ramped up its enforcement actions in recent weeks as it faces pressure to show progress on Trump's signature policy initiative. The agency arrested 2,200 people on 4 June, according to NBC News, a record for a single day. The network reported that hundreds of those arrested were enrolled in a programme known as Alternative to Detention, which allows for the release and monitoring of individuals not deemed an immediate threat. Live updates from LA protests LA's unrest in maps and pictures White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, the man widely seen as the intellectual architect of the deportation policy, has repeatedly said the White House hopes that ICE can scale up to 3,000 arrests a day, up from 660 or so during the first 100 days of Trump's presidency. "President Trump is going to keep pushing to get that number up higher each and every single day," Miller told Fox News in late May. Yet for much of the first 100 days of the administration, deportations were on par with, and at times below, those recorded during the last year of Joe Biden's presidency. The White House stopped publishing daily deportation figures early in 2020. "I'm not satisfied with the numbers," the administration's border tsar, Tom Homan, told reporters at the White House at the end of May. "We need to increase." Homan added that the Trump administration had "increased the teams a lot" and that "we expect a fast increase in the number of arrests". Several senior ICE officials - including Kenneth Genalo, its top deportation official - have left their roles at the agency in recent months. In February, ICE also moved two top officials overseeing deportations, as well as the agency's acting director, Caleb Vitello. At the time of the more recent reshuffle, the agency characterised the move as organisational realignments that will "help ICE achieve President Trump and the American people's mandate of arresting and deporting illegal aliens and making American communities safe". How LA erupted over a rumour Everything we know about the protests Analysis: A political fight Trump is eager to have The Department of Homeland Security said in a press release that the immigrants detained in the recent Los Angeles raids included individuals convicted of sex crimes, burglary, and drug related charges, among other offences. Local immigration advocates and community members, however, say that families have been torn apart and nonviolent immigrants detained. At a rally on Monday, Los Angeles City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado said that a Friday raid at a warehouse in the Fashion District "was not about public safety, it was a fear driven, state violence designed to silence, to intimidate, to disappear". While opinion polls show that Trump's immigration policies are popular with a majority of Americans, some of his backers have expressed concern about tactics. The co-founder of Latinas for Trump, for example, Florida State Senator Ileana Garcia, wrote on X that "this is not what we voted for". "I understand the importance of deporting criminal aliens, but what we are witnessing are arbitrary measures to hunt down people who are complying with their immigration hearings - in many cases, with credible fear of persecution claims - all driven by a Miller-like desire to satisfy a self-fabricated deportation goal," she added. Federal authorities have conducted more frequent immigration raids across the US, in states that lean both towards Democrats and Republicans. Some Republican-controlled states, like Tennessee, have assisted federal authorities. "California was willing to resist," said John Acevedo, an associate dean at Emory Law School, who studies free speech and protests in the US. Images of violence and resistance on the streets of Los Angeles gave Trump a catalyst for the deployment of the National Guard. "For his base, it does quite a bit. It shows he's serious, and allows them to show he will use all means necessary to enforce his [immigration] rules," Prof Acevedo said. Protesters in Los Angeles - which calls itself a sanctuary city, meaning it limits co-operation with federal immigration enforcement - did not relish the role they believed the administration had chosen for their city. "This is my people, you know, I'm fighting for us," said Maria Gutierrez, a Mexican-American who protested for two days in Paramount, a city in LA County that saw protests after residents spotted ICE agents in the area. The unrest there involved looting and at least one car burning. Authorities used rubber bullets and tear gas. She said there are some protesting in LA, including those in the nearby city of Compton, that share a belief that they were protecting the city from immigration enforcement and saw the Trump administration's threats as a challenge. Ms Gutierrez believed undocumented immigrants who commit violent offences should be targeted, but not those who she believes work hard and aspire to a better life. "This is our city. We're angry, we know how to protect ourselves and this isn't going to scare us," she said. But the community is not united in support for the protests that have captured national attention. Juan, who lives near Paramount, came to the US illegally and later became a citizen, but supports ICE's actions. "ICE agents have a job to do, just like you and I," said Juan, who asked the BBC to withhold his last name given the federal operations in the area. He said he worked for years as a day labourer, but gained citizenship and has four children who graduated from college. "It's hard," he said. "I have family who don't have papers, too. "But you can't really fight it if you're here and you're not supposed to be." "A crime is a crime," he said.
