Two purported mobsters were convicted Thursday 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, ending a two-week trial that featured dramatic testimony from a hired gunman and Alinejad, an author, activist and contributor to Voice of America.
Alinejad, who was not in court, told The Associated Press she cried when she learned of 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. “Right now I am bombarded with emotions. I have cried. I have laughed. I have even danced.”
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.
Acting U.S. Attorney Matthew Podolsky said in a statement that the verdicts sent a message that “if you target U.S. citizens, we will find you, no matter where you are, and bring you to justice.”
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 crime bosses in 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, said via email. A lawyer for Amirov did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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.
Prosecutors said Iranian intelligence officials first plotted in 2020 and 2021 to kidnap her in the U.S. and move her to Iran to silence her criticism.
When that failed, Iran offered $500,000 for a July 2022 killing of 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 President Donald Trump when he was campaigning last year. Tehran has denied being behind any such plots.
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 exposing of them showing 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.
Prosecutors said at trial 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 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 Associated Press contributed to this report.