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Voice of America
12-03-2025
- Politics
- Voice of America
‘I was there to try to kill the journalist,' gunman tells New York court
A self-described member of a Russian organized crime group told a court on Tuesday that he tried to kill the Iranian American journalist and VOA host Masih Alinejad in New York in 2022. Khalid Mehdiyev told jurors that he was arrested in July 2022 in his car in Brooklyn while in possession of an AK-47 rifle and a ski mask. The 27-year-old made the admission in testimony at a trial in New York of his associates Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, who are facing murder-for-hire and conspiracy charges. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran was allegedly behind the plot, according to prosecutors. Amirov and Omarov, both from Azerbaijan, have pleaded not guilty. If convicted, they face decades in prison. Media advocates say the case highlights how far the Iranian government will go to silence its critics. Iran's Foreign Ministry did not immediately reply to VOA's email requesting comment. Prosecutors say Amirov, 45, and Omarov, 40, hired Mehdiyev to kill Alinejad, a vocal critic of Tehran's human rights abuses. She left Iran in 2009 and now lives in New York, where she is a host with Voice of America's Persian Service. During opening statements on Tuesday, federal prosecutor Jacob Gutwillig said Tehran offered to pay Amirov and Omarov $500,000 to plan Alinejad's murder. 'The defendants were hired guns for the government of Iran,' Gutwillig said. 'Masih Alinejad was almost gunned down on the streets of New York City by a hitman sent by the defendants.' In his testimony Tuesday, Mehdiyev said he observed Alinejad during a seven-day stakeout outside her home. He tracked when she watered her flowers and where and when she bought coffee, he said. 'I was there to try to kill the journalist. I know her as Masih,' Mehdiyev told jurors. Mehdiyev, who is Azerbaijani, said he is cooperating with prosecutors after pleading guilty to attempted murder and illegal possession of a firearm. He faces at least 15 years in prison. Prosecutors told the court they would present 'substantial electronic communications' documenting the plan found on Omarov's accounts and devices. Amirov's lawyer, Michael Martin, said the evidence was circumstantial, while Omarov's lawyer, Michael Perkins, said the evidence would not show that his client planned to kill Alinejad. Alinejad, 48, told VOA she could not comment while the trial is ongoing. In a Tuesday afternoon post on X, Alinejad said that while Mehdiyev was testifying, she was 'overwhelmed with mixed emotions.' 'As a witness, I'm not allowed in the courtroom, so I'm sitting outside, reliving the moment when that man stood with a loaded gun in front of my home,' Alinejad wrote in the post. Alinejad is scheduled to testify later in the trial, Gutwillig said. 'Masih Alinejad inspires others in Iran and around the world to do the same thing. That is why they want to kill her. And you will hear all of that from Ms. Alinejad herself,' he told the court. Alinejad has been targeted over her work for years. In 2018, Iranian officials allegedly offered to pay Alinejad's relatives in Iran to invite her to Turkey, with the apparent goal of then bringing her to Iran for imprisonment, according to court documents. The relatives refused. Then, in 2021, Iranian operatives were accused of planning to kidnap Alinejad. An indictment described a plan to bring her from New York to Venezuela, which has close ties with Iran. Tehran has previously called the abduction allegations 'baseless.' Iran ranks among the worst countries in the world in terms of press freedom, according to rights groups. The country is also among the top perpetrators of transnational repression.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Iran ‘wanted desperately' to kill dissident journalist Masih Alinejad in NYC, feds say as murder-for-hire trial starts
The Iranian government 'wanted desperately' to kidnap and kill dissident journalist Masih Alinejad on the streets of New York City for shining a light on the regime's torturous oppression of women, a Manhattan jury heard in opening statements Tuesday in the murder-for-hire case against two Eastern European gangsters. 'They smeared her in state-run news media. They imprisoned her brother. They even attempted to kidnap her and bring her back to Iran. And when they failed, when they couldn't silence her or intimidate her or kidnap her, they hired these men,' Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacob Harris Gutwillig said in Manhattan federal court, looking over at Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov. 'The government of Iran wanted desperately Masih Alinejad murdered, and you will hear why.' Rafat Amirov, left, and Polad Omarov. Amirov and Omarov are members of the 'Thieves in Law' enterprise, one of Russia's oldest organized crime gangs that originated in Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's gulags. The men Gutwillig called 'guns for the government of Iran' have pleaded not guilty to murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, attempted murder in aid of racketeering, and possession and use of a firearm in the case alleging they participated in a plot to kill Alinejad, who contributes to Voice of America and other outlets, at her Flatbush, Brooklyn home in July 2022 at the behest of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran. Their trial is expected to shine a light on the far-reaching tentacles of the Iranian regime. The journalist, author, and human rights activist, a prolific critic of Iran's discriminatory treatment of women and human rights abuses, fled the country for the U.S. in 2009 and has since survived numerous attempts on her life. She became a U.S. citizen in 2019. In 2021, an Iranian intelligence official and four accomplices were indicted for spying on her for months and hatching a plan to kidnap her and transport her to the East River, where they planned to ferry her by boat to Venezuela, according to court records. The regime didn't give up, Gutwillig said Tuesday, noting it was Alinejad's encouragement to Iranian women to share pictures and videos on social media refusing to abide by the mandate to wear hijabs in public that particularly 'enraged' the Iranian regime. 'Masih Alinejad is one of their main targets — that is because she stood up to the government of Iran by taking aim at one of its core rules, and that core rule is forcing a woman to cover her head … If women in Iran do not comply, they may be arrested or beaten by the morality police,' he said. 'She shined a light on the government's oppression of women, (and) that enraged the regime.' In the case on trial, Gutwillig said evidence including a tranche of electronic communications would show Amirov and Omarov accepted $500,000 from the Iranian government to plan Alinejad's killing, which included stalking and preparing to murder her. The feds allege that after a member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard enlisted Amirov for help executing the hit, he hired Omarov via Iran. Omarov, who was in Eastern Europe, recruited Yonkers-based Khalid Mehdiyev of Azerbaijan, who was wired $30,000 to secure an AK-47 and surveil Alinejad round-the-clock during a seven-day stakeout outside her home — tracking where and when she bought coffee and what time she watered her flowers. Mehdiyev, indicted alongside Amirov and Omarov in January 2023, is cooperating with the feds, Gutwillig said Tuesday. He was outside Alinejad's home on the cusp of carrying out the killing on July 28, 2022, when she sensed something was off and fled the area. He was pulled over by the NYPD after running a stop sign 15 minutes later and found to have an AK-47 assault rifle, 66 rounds of ammunition, $1,100 in cash, and a black ski mask. In the defense's opening statement Tuesday, lawyers for Amirov and Omarov said they had no intent of killing Alinehad and that the evidence against them was wholly circumstantial. They framed Mehdiyev's cooperation as an attempt to save himself. 'The evidence will show Mr. Mehdiyev knew he was in serious trouble within hours of his arrest,' lawyer Michael Martin said, adding that the trail of electronic evidence held up by the feds had no 'fingerprints' belonging to his client. He called the cooperator a 'murderer, a kidnapper, an arsonist, a robber, an extortionist, a scammer, a fraudster and a liar.' Attorney Michael Perkins said Omarov, 'in simple terms,' was a scam artist who sought only to screw the Iranian regime out of payment to carry out the hit. 'Mr. Omarov did little more than forward some WhatsApp messages,' Perkins said, adding the evidence would show he never intended to kill the journalist. 'Mr. Omarov had no intention — no agreement — with anyone to kill Ms. Alinejad.' _____
New York Times
10-03-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Trial Set for Men Accused of Targeting Iranian Dissident in New York
First, the Iranian government was accused of trying to lure a journalist and dissident from New York City to Turkey to abduct and imprison her. Then, according to U.S. officials, intelligence agents schemed unsuccessfully to kidnap the woman, Masih Alinejad. In 2022 came the most audacious attempt to silence Ms. Alinejad, who was born in Iran and has long criticized its government. Prosecutors said figures connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran sent members of the Russian mob to kill her. The plot, authorities say, was thwarted when police officers stopped an Azerbaijani man who had lurked outside Ms. Alinejad's Brooklyn home and tried to open her door. In his sport utility vehicle, they found an assault rifle with an obliterated serial number, 66 rounds of ammunition and a ski mask. The men accused of directing the activity in Brooklyn, Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, are to stand trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Monday, charged with murder for hire and conspiracy. The trial is expected to illustrate the lengths to which Iranian officials will go to retaliate against expatriates, even those living in Western countries, who speak up against the government in Tehran. 'We will not tolerate attempts by a foreign power to threaten, silence or harm Americans,' Merrick B. Garland, the attorney general at the time, said in 2023 when federal officials first detailed the plot against Ms. Alinejad. Prosecutors are planning to describe how Mr. Amirov and Mr. Omarov operated within a rivalrous, faction-ridden criminal organization known as the Thieves-in-Law, which originated in Stalinist prison camps. Some insight might come from a former member of the group who prosecutors said participated in the plot against Ms. Alinejad, but will testify for the government as a cooperating witness. That person has been identified in court papers only as 'CW-1,' but details of his actions match some of those ascribed to Khalid Mehdiyev, the Azerbaijani man who was arrested outside Ms. Alinejad's house. An indictment that charged Mr. Amirov, Mr. Omarov and several others who remain at large did not list Mr. Mehdiyev, who lived in Yonkers, N.Y., at the time of his arrest, as a defendant. The cooperating witness will testify about statements by Mr. Amirov while both were in a federal jail in Brooklyn following the failed attempt on Ms. Alinejad's life, prosecutors wrote, including one that the contract for killing her was worth $500,000. Prosecutors also wrote that they would present 'substantial electronic communications' documenting the murder plot that were found in Mr. Omarov's cloud accounts and devices. Before trying to kill Ms. Alinejad, prosecutors wrote, Mr. Omarov and Mr. Mehdiyev had participated in several kidnapping and murder plots overseas, aiming to enrich themselves and to strengthen their standing within the Russian mob. The two had been involved in extorting an ethnic Azeri grocery store owner in Brooklyn in 2022, prosecutors said, when Mr. Omarov told Mr. Mehdiyev he had a better assignment — killing Ms. Alinejad — that could lead to additional lucrative jobs. Ms. Alinejad had worked in Iran as a journalist but wrote in The New York Times that she was forced to leave the country in 2009. Since then, Ms. Alinejad, who hosts a program called 'Tablet' on Voice of America Persian, a U.S. government-owned broadcaster, has been a sharp critic of the Iranian government. She is known for starting a campaign in 2014 against compulsory hijab laws in Iran and inviting women to wear white scarves in protest. In 2018, according to court papers, Iranian officials offered to pay Ms. Alinejad's relatives in Iran to invite her to Turkey, with the apparent goal of bringing her to Iran for imprisonment. The relatives refused and the next year one was sentenced to eight years in prison, court papers said, based on purported support for Ms. Alinejad's advocacy. Two years later, Iranian operatives, including an intelligence official named Alireza Shavaroghi Farahani, were accused of conspiring to kidnap Ms. Alinejad. Prosecutors said that the plotters had used a live, high-definition video feed of her home. An indictment described a plan that included the potential use of speedboats to spirit Ms. Alinejad away from New York City, followed by an ocean voyage to Venezuela, whose leadership has friendly relations with the Iranian government. The idea to kill Ms. Alinejad in Brooklyn originated soon after the kidnapping plot fell apart, according to prosecutors, and was initiated by a network in Iran led by Ruhollah Bazghandi, a brigadier general in the Revolutionary Guards. He and three other Iranian men who are not in U.S. custody have been charged in Manhattan with murder for hire. Members of the Bazghandi network turned to Mr. Amirov, a citizen of Azerbaijan and Russia who was then living in Iran, an indictment said, and he in turn contacted Mr. Omarov, a Georgian living in Eastern Europe. They provided $30,000 to Mr. Mehdiyev, according to an indictment, and he bought the assault rifle and began staking out Ms. Alinejad's home. His surveillance lasted about a week, an indictment said, with Mr. Mehdiyev telling Mr. Omarov at one point that he was 'at the crime scene.' The two men exchanged ideas about how to draw Ms. Alinejad to her door, the indictment said, and Mr. Mehdiyev sent a video showing the assault rifle to Mr. Omarov, along with the message: 'We are ready.' On that day, it seems, Ms. Alinejad was more prepared than the man sent to kill her. According to an affidavit by an F.B.I. agent, Mr. Mehdiyev lingered outside Ms. Alinejad's home for hours, at one point ordering food to be delivered to his vehicle, and tried to open Ms. Alinejad's front door. She slipped from the premises, apparently without encountering Mr. Mehdiyev. He drove away about 15 minutes later and was observed by police officers who had arrived after Ms. Alinejad reported suspicious activity to the F.B.I. While being watched, Mr. Mehdiyev drove through a stop sign, the agent wrote. That infraction provided a reason for the police to pull him over and discover that his driver's license was suspended. Mr. Mehdiyev was arrested and a search of his vehicle turned up the rifle. Soon after that, he was charged with possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. In jail in Brooklyn, Mr. Mehdiyev used a contraband phone to let the Thieves-in-Law know that he had been arrested. Word that he was in custody prompted a flurry of communications among the group's members, prosecutors said. One member sent Mr. Omarov several voice messages saying that Mr. Mehdiyev 'went to kill the journalist' but 'they caught him,' according to prosecutors. Days later. Mr. Omarov was said to have written to Mr. Amirov about Mr. Mehdiyev, saying: 'I hope he will not make trouble for me.'
