NEW YORK (NewsNation) — Two men who U.S. prosecutors say belong to a Russian organized crime group were convicted of involvement in an unsuccessful Iran-backed plot to kill a prominent New York-based dissident and journalist.
A jury in Manhattan federal court found Rafat Amirov, 46, and Polad Omarov, 40, guilty on Thursday of five charges including murder-for-hire over the planned assassination in 2022 of Masih Alinejad, a U.S.-Iranian and outspoken critic of Tehran and its treatment of women.
Prosecutors said Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps paid Amirov and Omarov $500,000 for the botched hit on Alinejad. She fled Iran in 2009.
A representative of Tehran’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Iran has called allegations its intelligence officers sought to kidnap Alinejad baseless.
“The Iranian regime’s brazen plot to silence and murder Americans will not be tolerated,” said Sue J. Bai, head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “This verdict underscores the Department’s commitment to finding and holding accountable those who threaten our citizens and our freedoms. With the great work of our prosecutors and law enforcement partners, we are now one step closer to justice.”
Jurors at the two-week trial heard testimony from Khalid Mehdiyev, a self-proclaimed mob associate of Amirov and Omarov who in July 2022 staked out Alinejad’s Brooklyn home.
He was arrested after running a stop sign, and police found an AK-47 rifle in his car.
“I was there to try to kill the journalist,” Mehdiyev testified. Mehdiyev, 27, cooperated with prosecutors after pleading guilty to attempted murder and illegal possession of a firearm.
Jurors also heard from Alinejad, who testified she saw a large man standing among flowers in her front yard in the summer of 2022, the same time Mehdiyev said he staked out 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.”
Omarov and Amirov could face life in prison when U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon sentences them on Sept. 17.
“For years, the Government of Iran has attempted to silence an outspoken Iranian journalist, author, activist and critic of their regime through any means necessary, including harassment, violence, intimidation, and even attempted murder,” said acting U.S. Attorney Matthew Podolsky for the Southern District of New York.
“Chillingly, the plot to murder this Iranian dissident culminated over 6,000 miles from Iran, on U.S. soil, right here in New York, when a hitman with an AK-47 camped outside her home to kill her.”
Reuters contributed to this report.