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CBS News
25-03-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
A murder-for-hire in Brooklyn: How the Iranian regime targeted a dissident with help from the Russian mob
Masih Alinejad , a journalist and prominent critic of the Iranian regime, was in the garden of her Brooklyn home when she locked eyes with the hitman hired to assassinate her. It was late July, and she had gone into her garden to pick vegetables. "He was gigantic," she later testified in federal district court in Manhattan at the trial of the men who plotted to kill her. "He was in the sunflowers staring into my eyes." Though she eyed him with some suspicion, she also thought he might be taking pictures of her garden of "beautiful sunflowers." "Every curse that I hear, I plant a flower," she explained, referring to threats she's endured for criticizing the Islamic Republic. "That's why I have a massive garden. A lot of cursing and threats." The man in her garden, Khalid Mehdiyev, had been directed to kill Alinejad by fellow members of a Russian mob organization known as Thieves-in-Law, Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, prosecutors said . In his car was an AK-47 style assault rifle and 66 rounds of ammunition. Prosecutors said that Iran's government had offered Amirov and Omarov a $500,000 bounty. On July 28, 2022, this murder-for-hire scheme involving Russian mobsters and the Iranian regime targeting a defiant dissident was foiled in Brooklyn. Alinejad, who has wild curls and often wears a white flower in her hair, is also an activist and leader of the movement to free Iran's women from the compulsory hijab . This was only one of the Iranian regime's several attempts to assassinate or kidnap Alinejad. One alleged assassination planner targeted not just Alinejad, but also President Trump during his 2024 campaign last fall. Farhad Shakeri is accused of being an "asset" of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who was tasked with devising a plan to kill Mr. Trump and recruiting two men to "silence and kill, on U.S. soil, an American journalist," according to the indictment. While it was not the first attempt on her life, Amirov and Omarov were the first attempted assassins to go to trial in New York last week in a criminal case that provided a rare look into Iran's assassination attempts on U.S. soil. Prosecutors said high-ranking members of the IRGC were instructing Amirov and Omarov in the scheme. FBI agents detailed their analysis of devices and internet search histories tying Iranian intelligence officers to the plot. Through photographs, videos and messages, they illustrated the global network behind the attempted murder, with Medhiyev reporting his surveillance progress to Omarov and Amirov as he updated them from Brooklyn. "We blocked it from both sides, it will be a show once she steps out of the house," messaged Medhiyev to Omarov, who then forwarded it to Amirov. "God willing," he replied. In another plan, Medhiyev went to ask Alinejad for flowers from her garden, but she did not come to the door. Her Ring camera surveillance at one point showed him pacing back and forth on her porch before trying to open the door. Medhiyev was later stopped by police, who found the rifle and bullets in the backseat of his car. Last week, a federal jury found Omarov and Amirov guilty on all charges , including murder-for-hire and attempted murder in aid of racketeering. They face over 50 years in prison. "I am being bombarded with emotion," Alinejad told CBS News over the phone shortly after the verdict, sounding tearful. "I just need to cry now, I need to laugh, I need to dance. I just got the news now." "The real masterminds of this crime are still in power in Iran," she said. "I am waiting for the day when Ali Khamenei and his terrorist Revolutionary Guards face justice, I want them to be punished." Despite the attempts on her life, Alinejad said she will not be silenced in her fight against the Islamic Republic. "She has a mission," her husband Kambiz Foroohar told CBS News. "And that mission is that the Islamic Republic is like ISIS. It's an evil regime. She feels like she's compelled to challenge it. Compulsory hijab is just one way of challenging the Islamic Republic." In Iran, Alinejad struggled to keep her wild curls hidden under a hijab. "I have a lot of hair. It was not easy," she testified in court. She was a political journalist there for over a decade but admitted she was always crossing the "red lines" of what Iran's government would allow people to write about. In 2009, she fled Iran. "I'm a journalist, so I couldn't just keep quiet," she said. "I had no option but to leave Iran." Once in the United States, she took off her hijab. She posted a photo of herself jumping in the air on social media, reveling in the feeling of the wind in her hair. In Iran, she "felt like a hostage." That was the beginning of her campaign against the compulsory hijab, which evolved into the White Wednesday movement. Every Wednesday, women in Iran would film videos of themselves walking unveiled, a peaceful protest against compulsion. "Social media is like my weapon," Alinejad testified. "My social media exposé." The Iranian regime reacted by calling her and unveiled women "prostitutes," she said. They arrested hundreds of women. Iran's Revolutionary Court has threatened women with up to 10 years in prison for sharing protest videos with her. "It's become a crime," she said, her voice cracking. The government has also accused Alinejad of being a foreign agent. "Oh, all of them," she testified listing intelligence agencies: "Agent of the CIA, agent of Mossad, Agent of MI6, agent of President Trump." In court, Alinejad broke down when the prosecution displayed a cartoon published in Iran's state-controlled newspaper depicting two dissidents hanging in the air and an image of Alinejad looking up at them fearfully. Both men, who held citizenship in Europe (one also had a U.S. green card) were kidnapped and executed by the Iranian regime. She testified in court that the caption read: " Next: Masih Alinejad. " "Did you understand that to be about you?" the prosecutor asked. "Yes," she replied tearfully. By proxy, Alinejad's family in Iran has also become a target. In 2018, Iranian government officials tried to coerce relatives to lure her to Turkey, where they planned to capture her, offering a payment in exchange. The relatives did not accept. In 2019, her brother was arrested on charges of associating with her. He was sentenced to eight years in prison but released after two years . "They can't reach her. They can reach her family." said Foroohar. "So that's always a big concern. But the family is also brave. They're enduring it." In July 2021, four Iranian intelligence officials were charged with a kidnapping conspiracy – for developing plans to kidnap Alinejad and bring her back to Iran. They allegedly explored slipping her out of the U.S. by travel routes from Alinejad's home to the waterfront in Brooklyn, a maritime evacuation route involving speed boats, and maritime travel from New York to Venezuela, according to the indictment. The conspirators live in Iran, where they remain at large. It is "chilling" how close Mehdiyev came to carrying out the plan to kill his wife, said Faroohar. Medhiyev testified at trial about seeing Alinejad on the porch as he walked by her home, but his gun was in the car. By the time he went back for it, she had left. "I was there to try to kill the journalist," he admitted. Medhiyev was a key witness for the prosecution, but the defense tried to undermine his credibility, dubbing him the "pizza delivery hitman" after Medhiyev admitted on the stand that he had once planned a kidnapping while working at a pizza shop. "As you're coordinating an international kidnapping you're also working at a pizza shop?" asked Omarov's defense attorney, Elena Fast. "That's correct," he replied. On the day of his arrest, Mehdiyev had approached the door of Alinejad's home. At the time she was on a Zoom call with Venezuelan dissident Leopoldo Lopez and Russian chess player Garry Kasparov . She heard someone on the porch but did not go downstairs. "She said, 'I don't know who that is but this call is more important,'" Lopez recounted over Whatsapp. "It was the Zoom call that saved her life," he said. Earlier, Medhiyev had sent Omarov a video of him opening a suitcase in the back of his car with an AK-47 style rifle inside. A caption read, "we are ready." Amirov replied, "keep the car clean." Police arrested Mehdiyev nearby that day after he ran a stop sign. In the back of his car, they discovered the AK-47 style assault rifle and 66 rounds of ammunition. Foroohar received a call at work from the FBI asking to "whisk me away to a safe location." He and Alinejad were later told that a man with an AK-47 had been arrested outside their home. "It's quite stressful. It's quite scary," admitted Foroohar, when asked what it felt like to live under threat. "At the same time if you think about it too much, you are just paralyzed. So you compartmentalize." "It's not easy. Sometimes you look over your shoulder," he added. "Sometimes you just learn how to trust." Alinejad and her husband have lived in so many safe houses that they lost track. She has only been back to their Brooklyn home once to make sure the neighbors are watering her garden. In 2024, it was under surveillance again. On Nov. 7, Shakeri – the man assigned to assassinate both Mr. Trump and Alinejad – along with Carlisle Rivera and Jonathan Loadholt were indicted for their alleged involvement in a second murder-for-hire plot on Alinejad's life. Rivera and Loadholt are accused of surveilling her Brooklyn home for months, with the intent to locate and kill her. The Justice Department charged Shakeri with directing "a network of criminal associates to further Iran's assassination plots against its targets." "It was very shocking and surprising," said Foroohar. "We thought the whole thing was over and done with. And we don't know when the next one is. We had a conversation with members of the Biden administration, and they said, you better get used to this because Iran is very determined to get rid of Masih, and they're not going to give up."
USA Today
22-03-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Federal jury convicts 2 of Iran-backed murder-for-hire plot to kill U.S. journalist
Federal jury convicts 2 of Iran-backed murder-for-hire plot to kill U.S. journalist Show Caption Hide Caption Iran wants to kill Trump, other US leaders, officials say According to U.S. officials, Iran wants revenge for the death of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and is targeting Donald Trump and other U.S. leaders. A federal jury convicted two European men in a plot to assassinate an Iranian-American journalist in exchange for $500,000 from the Iranian government, the Justice Department announced. Rafat Amirov of Iran and Polad Omarov of Georgia were found guilty in connection with the 2022 murder-for-hire scheme, the Justice Department said in a Friday press release. The plot targeted Masih Alinejad, who is a staunch critic of the Iranian government. 'The Iranian regime's brazen plot to silence and murder Americans will not be tolerated,' Sue J. Bai, head of the DOJ's National Security Division, said in the release. According to Alinejad's nonprofit on compulsory hijab in Iran, she worked as a journalist covering the nation's parliament for several years before leaving in 2009. In the U.S., she hosted Voice of America's satirical news show "Tablet" and freelanced for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and the Independent. Alinejad posted on X Thursday about the verdict. She shared relief about the jury's decision but said "the real masterminds" are in power in Iran and she's "waiting for the day when Ali Khamenei and his terrorist Revolutionary Guards face justice." "For the first time, the regime of the Islamic Republic is being held accountable for bringing its campaign of terror to U.S. soil," she wrote. "This is just the beginning of exposing and dismantling its network of violence." Omarov's lawyer Elena Fast said she respected the jury's verdict but would appeal. Amirov's lawyer didn't immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment. Journalist targeted for her criticisms of the Iranian government According to court papers, Amirov and Omarov were high-ranking members of the Bazghandi Network, an Eastern European crime organization. Ranking members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps told the two to kill Alinejad, court papers said. The IRGC is a branch of the Iranian armed forces and is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S., according to the National Counter Terrorism Center. The Bazghandi Network is named after Ruhollah Bazghandi, a brigadier general of the IRGC who previously served as chief of the corps' counterintelligence department, the Justice Department said in October. Alinejad has been a target of the IRGC as recently as 2020 because she criticized Iran and publicized the nation's human rights abuses across the globe, prosecutors said Friday. "After these brazen efforts to kidnap Alinejad from the U.S. failed, the IRGC turned to Amirov and Omarov to locate, surveil, and murder her," the department said in the release. "Beginning in approximately July 2022, Amirov sent targeting information - which he had received directly from IRGC officials in Iran - about Alinejad to Omarov." Omarov shared that information with Khalid Mehdiyev, a member of the Bazghandi Network, so Mehdiyev could monitor Alinejad, according to court papers. Mehdiyev sent reports and information about the journalist's whereabouts to Omarov and others in exchange for money. He used the funds to buy an AK-47-style rifle, two magazines and at least 66 rounds of ammunition. More: Iranian military official, 3 others charged in plot to assassinate journalist in New York "On July 27, 2022, Omarov told Amirov that Mehdiyev was ready to kill Alinejad, writing 'this matter will be over today. I told them to make a birthday present for me. I pressured them, they will sleep there this night,'" according to the DOJ release. Police stopped Mehdiyev for a traffic violation the next day and found the AK-47-style rifle, ammunition, a black ski mask and about $1,100 in cash during a vehicle search. Mehdiyev testified at the trial that he was at Alinejad's to "try to kill the journalist." Alinejad also testified, saying she saw a large man standing among flowers in her front yard in the summer of 2022, the same time Mehdiyev said he watched her home. "The guy was a little bit suspicious so I got panicked," Alinejad testified. "He was in the sunflowers, like, staring into my eyes." U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon will sentence Omarov and Amirov on Sept. 17. They could face up to life in prison for the possession and use of a gun in connection with the attempted murder charge. Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Matthew Podolsky said Friday that Iran has tried for years to "silence an outspoken Iranian journalist, author, activist and critic of their regime through any means necessary." He later added the 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." Others arrested in the plot are: Zialat Mamedov of Georgia; Ruhollah Bazghandi of Iran; Fnu Lnu, also known as Haj Taher, of Iran; Hossein Sedighi of Iran; and Seyed Mohammad Forouzan of Iran. Prosecutors said after the DOJ exposed the murder plot, those in the Bazghandi Network monitored other members' court cases and targeted Alinejad. Trump reissues 'maximum pressure' campaign on Iran President Donald Trump issued a presidential memorandum in February, restoring his "maximum pressure" campaign on Iran that he used in his first term as president. According to the memo, Trump ordered the Department of the Treasury secretary to impose "maximum economic pressure" on the country using sanctions and other measures. Nearly a month later, Trump sent a letter to Iran's Western Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in March seeking to negotiate a nuclear deal with the Middle Eastern nation. He told Fox Business Network that "there are two ways Iran can be handled: militarily, or you make a deal." Khamenei said days later that the country won't be bullied into negotiations and won't accept the U.S.'s expectations, Iranian state media reported. Speaking to Trump in the post, Alinejad said the murder plot was bigger than her and a matter of national security. "The Iranian regime doesn't just hate me; they hate the very principles that define America, freedom, democracy, and free speech. If they can send assassins to kill a journalist on American soil, they can threaten anyone. Will you take action before it's too late?" Contributing: Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY; Reuters. Contact reporter Krystal Nurse at knurse@ Follow her on X @KrystalRNurse, and on BlueSky @
CNN
21-03-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Jury convicts 2 men of plotting to assassinate an Iranian American journalist in New York
New York (AP) — A jury has convicted two men of plotting to assassinate Iranian American journalist Masih Alinejad at her home in New York City in a murder-for-hire scheme that prosecutors said was financed by Iran's government. The verdict was returned at a federal court in New York on Thursday, ending a two-week trial that featured dramatic testimony from a hired gunman and Alinejad, an author, activist and contributor to Voice of America. Prosecutors said the convicted men, Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, were crime bosses in the Russian mob. Their lawyers argued that they were innocent and trial evidence was flawed. Alinejad, 48, was targeted by Iran for her online campaigns encouraging women there to record videos of themselves exposing their hair in violation of edicts requiring they cover it in public. Iran offered $500,000 for a July 2022 killing of Alinejad after efforts to harass, smear and intimidate Alinejad failed, prosecutors said. American officials have accused Iran of backing several assassination plots in the United States, including against President Donald Trump when he was campaigning last year. Tehran has denied being behind any plots to kill people in the U.S. Alinejad, who was not in court, told The Associated Press she cried when she learned about the verdict. '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 said. Alinejad testified last week that she came to the United States in 2009 after she was banned from covering Iran's disputed presidential election and the newspaper where she worked was shut down. Establishing herself in New York City, she built an online audience of millions and launched her 'My Stealthy Freedom' campaign, telling Iranian women to send photos and videos of them exposing their hair when the morality police were not around. Soon, she said, she had inspired women to take to the streets in Iran on Wednesdays to peacefully protest, leading the government to arrest hundreds of them. The crackdown only caused her following to grow, however. At the trial, prosecutors said that by 2022, the Iranian government had enlisted organized crime figures, including Amirov and Omarov, to kill Alinejad. Khalid Mehdiyev, a former member of the Russian mob who lived in Yonkers and worked at a pizzeria, testified that he was hired as the hitman. Like Amirov and Omarov, he is from Azerbaijan, which shares a border and cultural ties with Iran. Mehdiyev, who cooperated with prosecutors after pleading guilty to multiple crimes, said he bought an AK-47 to kill Alinejad but the plan was foiled when his car was stopped by police and the gun was found 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 in custody. In a separate case, U.S. prosecutors in 2022 charged a man in Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard with plotting to kill former U.S. national security adviser John Bolton. Iranian officials vowed to exact revenge against Trump and others in his former administration over the 2020 drone strike that killed the prominent Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad. Alinejad said she has had to move nearly two dozen times since the assassination plot was discovered, at times feeling guilty that so many of her followers in Iran lack a safety net. That, she said, only 'makes me more determined to give voice to voiceless people.'
CNN
21-03-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Jury convicts 2 men of plotting to assassinate an Iranian American journalist in New York
New York (AP) — A jury has convicted two men of plotting to assassinate Iranian American journalist Masih Alinejad at her home in New York City in a murder-for-hire scheme that prosecutors said was financed by Iran's government. The verdict was returned at a federal court in New York on Thursday, ending a two-week trial that featured dramatic testimony from a hired gunman and Alinejad, an author, activist and contributor to Voice of America. Prosecutors said the convicted men, Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, were crime bosses in the Russian mob. Their lawyers argued that they were innocent and trial evidence was flawed. Alinejad, 48, was targeted by Iran for her online campaigns encouraging women there to record videos of themselves exposing their hair in violation of edicts requiring they cover it in public. Iran offered $500,000 for a July 2022 killing of Alinejad after efforts to harass, smear and intimidate Alinejad failed, prosecutors said. American officials have accused Iran of backing several assassination plots in the United States, including against President Donald Trump when he was campaigning last year. Tehran has denied being behind any plots to kill people in the U.S. Alinejad, who was not in court, told The Associated Press she cried when she learned about the verdict. '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 said. Alinejad testified last week that she came to the United States in 2009 after she was banned from covering Iran's disputed presidential election and the newspaper where she worked was shut down. Establishing herself in New York City, she built an online audience of millions and launched her 'My Stealthy Freedom' campaign, telling Iranian women to send photos and videos of them exposing their hair when the morality police were not around. Soon, she said, she had inspired women to take to the streets in Iran on Wednesdays to peacefully protest, leading the government to arrest hundreds of them. The crackdown only caused her following to grow, however. At the trial, prosecutors said that by 2022, the Iranian government had enlisted organized crime figures, including Amirov and Omarov, to kill Alinejad. Khalid Mehdiyev, a former member of the Russian mob who lived in Yonkers and worked at a pizzeria, testified that he was hired as the hitman. Like Amirov and Omarov, he is from Azerbaijan, which shares a border and cultural ties with Iran. Mehdiyev, who cooperated with prosecutors after pleading guilty to multiple crimes, said he bought an AK-47 to kill Alinejad but the plan was foiled when his car was stopped by police and the gun was found 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 in custody. In a separate case, U.S. prosecutors in 2022 charged a man in Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard with plotting to kill former U.S. national security adviser John Bolton. Iranian officials vowed to exact revenge against Trump and others in his former administration over the 2020 drone strike that killed the prominent Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad. Alinejad said she has had to move nearly two dozen times since the assassination plot was discovered, at times feeling guilty that so many of her followers in Iran lack a safety net. That, she said, only 'makes me more determined to give voice to voiceless people.'
The Guardian
20-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Two men convicted of murder-for-hire plot against Iranian American journalist in New York
Two men have been found guilty of plotting to assassinate Iranian American journalist Masih Alinejad at her home in New York City in a murder-for-hire scheme that prosecutors said was financed by the Iranian government. The verdict was returned at a federal court in New York on Thursday, ending a two-week trial that featured dramatic testimony from a hired gunman and Alinejad, an author, activist and contributor to Voice of America. Prosecutors said the convicted men, Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, were crime bosses in the Russian mob. Their lawyers argued that they were innocent and trial evidence was flawed. Prosecutors said Alinejad, 48, was targeted by Iran for her online campaigns encouraging women there to record videos of themselves exposing their hair in violation of edicts requiring they cover it in public. Iran offered $500,000 for a July 2022 plot to kill Alinejad after efforts to harass, smear and intimidate her failed, prosecutors said. American officials have accused Iran of backing several assassination plots in the United States, including against Donald Trump when he was campaigning last year. Tehran has denied being behind any plots to kill people in the US. Alinejad, who was not in court, told the Associated Press she cried when she learned about the verdict. '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 said. Alinejad testified last week that she came to the United States in 2009 after she was banned from covering Iran's disputed presidential election and the newspaper where she worked was shut down. Establishing herself in New York City, she built an online audience of millions and launched her 'My Stealthy Freedom' campaign, telling Iranian women to send photos and videos of themselves exposing their hair when the 'morality police' were not around. Soon, she said, she had inspired women to take to the streets in Iran on Wednesdays to peacefully protest, leading the government to arrest hundreds of them. The crackdown only caused her following to grow, however. At the trial, prosecutors said that by 2022, the Iranian government had enlisted high-level Russian mobsters, including Amirov and Omarov, to kill Alinejad. Khalid Mehdiyev, a former member of the Russian mob who lived in Yonkers and worked at a pizzeria, testified that he was hired as the hitman. Like Amirov and Omarov, he is from Azerbaijan, which shares a border and cultural ties with Iran. Mehdiyev, who cooperated with prosecutors after pleading guilty to multiple crimes, said he bought an AK-47 to kill Alinejad but the plan was foiled when his car was stopped by police and the gun was found in the back seat in July 2022. Prosecutors have kept the investigation open. In October they announced charges against a senior Iranian military official and three others, none of whom are in custody.
