Two men have been convicted of murder-for-hire as part of an Iranian government plot to silence a critic in the United States, federal prosecutors said Friday.
Their target was Masih Alinejad, a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Alinejad is a journalist affiliated with Voice of America, a U.S.-government funded news outlet whose director has described it as promoting freedom and democracy worldwide by providing objective information.
Rafat Amirov, 46; and Polad Omarov, 40, were convicted by a federal grand jury in New York City of five counts on Thursday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
The indictment includes charges of murder-for-hire; conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire; conspiracy to commit money laundering; attempted murder in aid of racketeering; and carrying a gun for an attempted murder, the office said.
Alinejad, who has been critical of Iran’s treatment of women and of its record on human rights, responded to Thursday’s verdict in a statement: “For the first time, the regime of the Islamic Republic is being held accountable for bringing its campaign of terror to U.S. soil.”
She added, “They failed. I am still here.”
Attorneys for Amirov did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday. Omarov’s lawyer, Elena Fast, said by email, “We respect the jury’s verdict, but plan on filing an appeal on Mr. Omarov’s behalf.”
Federal prosecutors said high-ranking members of the Revolutionary Guard tapped the pair, described in the indictment as superiors in New York City’s Russian Mob, to find and kill Alinejad for $500,000.
The assignment, prosecutors said, came a year after a failed attempt on behalf of the government of Iran to kidnap the journalist in 2021. The defendants subcontracted the latest assignment to another member of their crime group, Khalid Mehdiyev, who lived about 25 miles north of New York City, in Yonkers, prosecutors said.
Iran has denied the 2021 allegation, calling it “baseless.”
Mehdiyev, identified in the indictment as “a co-conspirator not named as a defendant herein,” testified that he was hired by the defendants to kill Alinejad and earlier pleaded guilty to lesser counts as he cooperated with the prosecution.
The pair sent him $30,000, according to the indictment. Mehdviyev purchased a Norinco AK-47 replica for the job, it said.
On July 28, 2022, after Mehdviyev told his superiors he was ready to pull the trigger, he was arrested in a traffic stop near Alinejad’s Brooklyn home, where police said they found the gun, the indictment said. Also found: 66 rounds of ammunition and $1,100 in cash, both in suitcase in the vehicle, it said.
Mehdviyev was under FBI surveillance, according to a 2022 affidavit in support of arresting and charging him for allegedly possessing a firearm without a serial number, a federal crime.
According to the affidavit, agents watched Mehdviyev go up to Alinejad’s porch the day before his arrest. In a social media post, Alinejad shared security video showing a man on her porch who she said “attempted to open the front door.”
“The defendants participated in a brazen plot to kill an Iranian American dissident in New York who criticized the regime in Iran,” FBI counterintelligence acting director Roman Rozhavsky said in Friday’s statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. “The FBI will not tolerate Iran’s attempts to threaten, silence, or harm American citizens.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday welcomed the convictions, writing on X: “Yesterday’s court decision shows Iran’s attempts at lethal plotting against Americans like @AlinejadMasih will be met with swift justice & accountability.”
Alinejad came to the U.S. after she was banished from Iran in the wake of her coverage of corrupt politicians and the disputed outcome of its 2009 national election.
After she arrived, she launched a social media campaign encouraging women in the country to post photos of themselves in public sans their government-required hijabs.
Amirov and Omarov face the possibility of life in prison at sentencing, which is scheduled for Sept. 27, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Last week, President Donald Trump ordered Voice of America to cut operations to the bare minimum under law.
