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’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately reply to VOA’s email requesting comment.
Prosecutors say Amirov, 45, and Omarov, 40, hired Mehdiyev to kill Alinejad, a vocal critic of Tehran’s human rights abuses. She left Iran in 2009 and now lives in New York, where she is a host with Voice of America’s Persian Service.
During opening statements on Tuesday, federal prosecutor Jacob Gutwillig said Tehran offered to pay Amirov and Omarov $500,000 to plan Alinejad’s murder.
“The defendants were hired guns for the government of Iran,” Gutwillig said. “Masih Alinejad was almost gunned down on the streets of New York City by a hitman sent by the defendants.”
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.
“I was there to try to kill the journalist. I know her as Masih,” 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 “substantial electronic communications” documenting the plan found on Omarov’s accounts and devices.
Amirov’s lawyer, Michael Martin, said the evidence was circumstantial, while Omarov’s 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 “overwhelmed with mixed emotions.”
“As a witness, I’m not allowed in the courtroom, so I’m sitting outside, reliving the moment when that man stood with a loaded gun in front of my home,” Alinejad wrote in the post.
Alinejad is scheduled to testify later in the trial, Gutwillig said.
“Masih 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,” he told the court.
Alinejad has been targeted over her work for years.
In 2018, Iranian officials allegedly offered to pay Alinejad’s 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 “baseless.”
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.
