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A Manhattan federal jury found Rafat Amirov, 46, of Iran, and Polad Omarov, 40, of Georgia, guilty on all five counts related to a murder-for-hire scheme targeting journalist and human rights activist Masih Alinejad on Thursday, March 20.
The pair orchestrated the plan under orders from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), offering a hitman $500,000 to kill Alinejad outside her Brooklyn home, according to prosecutors.
Alinejad has reported on the Iranian government’s human rights abuses and its suppression of political expression.
The verdict follows a harrowing trial in which prosecutors outlined a transnational effort to surveil and murder the outspoken critic of the Iranian regime. Alinejad, who has long faced threats from Iranian officials, had previously been targeted in a 2021 kidnapping plot.
When that failed, the IRGC turned to Amirov and Omarov to finish the job.The duo enlisted a Yonkers-based associate, Khalid Mehdiyev, who allegedly conducted surveillance on Alinejad’s home in July 2022, waiting outside with an AK-47-style rifle and over 60 rounds of ammunition, as Daily Voice previously reported.
Photos and videos of the journalist’s residence were passed up the chain to Amirov and Iranian operatives. At one point during the operation, Omarov told Amirov the hit would be his “birthday present,” according to court testimony.
Fortunately, Alinejad grew suspicious after noticing the activity outside her home and left the area. She was not injured.
Mehdiyev was arrested the following day after being pulled over for a traffic violation. Inside his vehicle, police discovered the rifle, ammunition, and a ski mask.
Following Mehdiyev’s arrest, Omarov contacted Mehdiyev’s mother and allegedly threatened to kill her and another son if she didn’t help locate him.
Omarov was arrested in the Czech Republic in early January 2023, while Amirov was apprehended in New York weeks later.
In court Thursday, jurors found both men guilty of:
- Murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire (each carrying up to 10 years in prison)
- Conspiracy to commit money laundering (up to 20 years)
- Attempted murder in aid of racketeering (up to 10 years)
- Possession of a firearm in furtherance of a violent crime, which carries a mandatory minimum of 5 years and up to life in prison
The men are scheduled to be sentenced in September.
Alinejad thanked the FBI on X shortly after the arrests, saying in part:
“Let me make it clear, I’m not scared for my life because I knew that killing, hanging, assassinating, torturing, raping is in the DNA of the Islamic Republic. That’s why I came to the United States of America to practice my right, my freedom of expression, to give voice to brave people of Iran who say no to the Islamic republic.”
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