2 sentenced in Iran-backed plot to assassinate journalist Masih Alinejad

Two men hired by the Iranian government to kill journalist and human rights activist Masih Alinejad in New York have been sentenced to 25 years in prison, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

Rafat Amirov, 46, of Iran, and Polad Omarov, 41, of the country of Georgia, were convicted in March of participating in a murder-for-hire plot directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Prosecutors said the two men, identified as senior members of an Azerbaijani faction of the Russian mob, were hired by Iranian officials and offered $500,000 to assassinate Masih Alinejad.

“The defendants and their criminal associates came chillingly close to gunning down an Iranian-American journalist on the streets of New York,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg said. “After multiple failed kidnapping attempts, Tehran turned to criminal networks to stalk and murder her.”

According to court documents, Iranian intelligence officials provided Amirov with Alinejad’s home address and instructions to coordinate with Omarov, who relayed surveillance information to an associate in New York.

The associate, Khalid Mehdiyev, was arrested in July 2022 after police discovered an assault rifle, ammunition, cash, and a ski mask in his vehicle near Alinejad’s residence.

The Justice Department said the plot followed earlier Iranian attempts to kidnap Alinejad, who has been a vocal critic of Tehran’s human rights abuses, particularly its treatment of women and political dissidents.

U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York said the operation involved participants across three continents and culminated with a hitman carrying an AK-47 outside Alinejad’s Brooklyn home.

Amirov and Omarov were also each ordered to pay a $500 special assessment. The case was investigated by the FBI’s New York Field Office Counterintelligence-Cyber Division and the Iran Threat Task Force, with assistance from the NYPD and authorities in the Czech Republic.