In a stark example of international conspiracies reaching American soil, two foreign criminals have been handed a heavy sentence for plotting a murder-for-hire on behalf of the Iranian government. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, Russian mob leaders Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov will each serve 25 years in prison for their attempted assassination of journalist Masih Alinejad.
These stern sentences follow their conviction in March 2025, for counts of murder-for-hire, attempted murder in aid of racketeering, and other charges. U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton emphasized, "The Government of Iran, a sponsor of terrorism, assassination, and espionage around the globe, brazenly brought its efforts to murder Masih Alinejad to New York." He noted that the plot involved operatives across three continents, with an armed hitman poised outside the victim's Brooklyn apartment, as per the U.S. Attorney's Office.
"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 John A. Eisenberg said, revealing Tehran's relentless pursuit to silence Alinejad. As per Clayton's statement, multiple kidnapping attempts by Iranian intelligence had failed, prompting them to turn to Amirov and Omarov's criminal network, as noted by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The evidence presented at trial showed the duo's high-ranking positions within an Azerbaijani faction of the Russian Mob. They were tasked by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to surveil and execute Alinejad, who has been vocal about Iran's human rights abuses and the oppression of women. They went as far as arranging for Khalid Mehdiyev, another mob associate, to handle the groundwork for the assassination. Raia, of the FBI, stated, "These defendants operated as unlawful enforcers for a foreign government to target an American journalist on our nation’s soil," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
After the initial indictment and amidst the trial, the case shed light on the alarmingly intricate web woven to target Alinejad, an individual exercising her right to speech and journalistic inquiry. On the day of what was supposed to be the culmination of their plot, Mehdiyev was arrested and subsequently, an assault rifle and ammunition were found in his vehicle. This was a critical turn of events that prevented a potential tragedy and led to the unraveling of the conspiracy.
In addition to their quarter-century sentences, both Amirov and Omarov, hailing from Iran and Georgia respectively, were ordered to pay a $500 special assessment, underscoring the severity of their crimes and the U.S. justice system's response to them. The prosecution's success was credited to the collaborative efforts of multiple agencies, including the FBI's New York Field Office and the NYPD, highlighting broad opposition to international threats against freedom of speech and security.
