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\u2019s Foreign Ministry did not immediately reply to VOA\u2019s email requesting comment. Prosecutors say Amirov, 45, and Omarov, 40, hired Mehdiyev to kill Alinejad, a vocal critic of Tehran\u2019s human rights abuses. She left Iran in 2009 and now lives in New York, where she is a host with Voice of America\u2019s Persian Service. During opening statements on Tuesday, federal prosecutor Jacob Gutwillig said Tehran offered to pay Amirov and Omarov $500,000 to plan Alinejad\u2019s murder. \u201cThe defendants were hired guns for the government of Iran,\u201d Gutwillig said. \u201cMasih Alinejad was almost gunned down on the streets of New York City by a hitman sent by the defendants.\u201d 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. \u201cI was there to try to kill the journalist. I know her as Masih,\u201d 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 \u201csubstantial electronic communications\u201d documenting the plan found on Omarov\u2019s accounts and devices. Amirov\u2019s lawyer, Michael Martin, said the evidence was circumstantial, while Omarov\u2019s 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 \u201coverwhelmed with mixed emotions.\u201d \u201cAs a witness, I\u2019m not allowed in the courtroom, so I\u2019m sitting outside, reliving the moment when that man stood with a loaded gun in front of my home,\u201d Alinejad wrote in the post. Alinejad is scheduled to testify later in the trial, Gutwillig said. \u201cMasih 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,\u201d he told the court. Alinejad has been targeted over her work for years. In 2018, Iranian officials allegedly offered to pay Alinejad\u2019s 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 \u201cbaseless.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":495,"featured_media":29803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[141],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/495"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobbinghood.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}