Canadian Iranian journalist and documentary filmmaker
A mobster, who admitted to trying to kill Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad on US soil in 2022, took the stand Thursday exposing the alleged links between Iran’s government and organized crime.
Khalid Mehdiyev said one of the defendants in the Russian mob group, Rafat Amirov confessed to him that Iran's government was behind the plot to murder the Iranian-American journalist.
Jacob Gutwillig, a federal prosecutor said in court this week: "The defendants were hired guns for the government of Iran."
Alinejad has been of the strongest and most vocal critics of Tehran's human rights abuses and persecution of women and minorities.
Since she fled Iran in 2009, she has had a target on her back.
“I was trying to get the easy way to kill her," the bearded Mehdiyev confessed in the Manhattan courtroom.
Prosecutors have said Iran’s government offered to pay Amirov, 45, and Omarov, 40, about $500,000.
Amirov and Omarov, both fellow natives of Mehdiyev’s Azerbaijan, are on trial for the murder-for-hire and attempted murder in aid of racketeering. The duo both pleaded not guilty.
Mehdiyev, who said he was paid $30,000 for the failed assassination attempt, is cooperating with the federal government after pleading guilty in an effort to lessen his potential sentence.
Watching and Waiting
Mehdiyev got dangerously close to Alinejad.
He parked outside of Alinejad's Brooklyn home for two days, watching her every move, and even slept in his car, ordering doordash meals to his vehicle.
The self-proclaimed Russian mobster watched and waited for his target.
The would-be assassin told the court he tried to open Alinejad's door, took videos and photos of himself touching her flowers in her front yard to prove to his mobster associates he was getting close to his mission, and asked his mob boss for a bike to conduct more surveillance.
In bone chilling testimony, Mehdiyev said even tried to hire a woman to lure Alinejad outside her home. He said he told the woman that his target owed him money and once she was in plain sight from the door opening, he would take care of the rest and pay her his share.
“I was there to try to kill the journalist,” said Mehdiyev.
He said in court Thursday that he saw Alinejad outside her Brooklyn home in at least on occasion. The shocking revelation made even more significant since Alinejad was already under FBI protection at the time.
But his assassination plans failed with some errors.
Once Alinejad spotted the stranger lurking around her home, peering into her window and wandering around her, she reported him to the FBI.
Mehdiyev ran a stop sign as authorities trailed him, leading to his arrest and the discovery of a loaded Ak-47, with one in the chamber and a ski mask.
The ski mask, he calmly said in court was "to cover my face when I was going to kill the journalist."
A past of kidnappings and murder-for-hire plots
Mehdiyev faced a grueling cross-examination that focused on his extensive criminal past.
Elena Fast, Omarov’s defense attorney, asked if he was ever caught for committing crimes in other parts of the world. He allegedly committed crimes in 7 countries around the world, but has only been convicted in the U.S.
Mehdiyev told the court he once tried to orchestrate a kidnapping in Ukraine as he was also managing a pizza shop called Peppino’s.
His resume included alleged kidnappings, extortion and murder-for-hire plots.
Green Card for an Informant (S Nonimmigrant)
Mehdiyev was born in Azerbaijan and left for the United States in 2017 after fear of rival gangs emerged in his home country.
He said he was offered by one of his mob bosses, known as a Vor in Russian, to run the gang division in the U.S. Mehdiyev said his goal was to one day became a Vor himself, and move up the ranks from his position.
He entered the U.S. on Nov 4, 2017 and later applied for political asylum, claiming that he would be tortured by Azerbaijani authorities. Mehdiyev admitted it was a lie as Fast, Omarov’s defense attorney said he was wanted in Azerbaijan for crime.
As a witness who has agreed to cooperate with the US government Mehdiyev's entire immediate family including his father, mother and brother are living in the United States with a S greencard, provided to informants.
Meantime, Alinejad hasn't seen her family in more than 15 years. Even Alinejad's brother was imprisoned in Iran in an attempt to put pressure on her to cease her activism.
As a witness, Alinejad cannot discuss the case, but posted to X on Wednesday how profoundly grateful she was to US law enforcement for saving her life.
“In a federal court, he admitted he was sent by the Islamic Republic to kill me for the ‘crime’ of speaking out,” Alinejad wrote on X.
