A self-professed Russian mobster has admitted to trying to kill an Iranian dissident in an alleged $500,000 murder-for-hire plot by Iran, a federal court has heard.
Khalid Mehdiyev, 27, told jurors he was arrested in July 2022 after being pulled over in Brooklyn, New York while in possession of an AK-47 rifle, 6 rounds of ammunition, and a ski mask.
He admitted to attempting to kill Masih Alinejad, a New York-based journalist and activist who left Iran in 2009, after carrying out a seven-day stakeout near her home.
Mehdiyev told the court he observed Alinejad around-the-clock, tracking everything from her coffee runs to the time she watered her garden, The Times reports.
'I was there to try to kill the journalist. I know her as Masih,' Mehdiyev told jurors at Manhattan federal court on Tuesday.
He also testified that he 'directed murders, kidnap and extortion' plots for the mob during a life of crime that began a decade ago in his native Azerbaijan.
Prosecutors say Mehdiyev was hired by the associates Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov to kill Alinejad, who is known for her outspoken criticism of the government in Tehran and its treatment of women.
Amirov, 45, and Omarov, 40, have pleaded not guilty to murder for hire and attempted murder in aid of racketeering. They could face decades in prison if convicted.
Khalid Mehdiyev, 27, has admitted to trying to kill Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad in an alleged $500,000 murder-for-hire plot by Iran. Mehdiyev is pictured standing on the porch of Alinejad's then-house in July 2022
Masih Alinejad (pictured in 2024) fled Iran following the country's disputed 2009 presidential election and became a US citizen in October 2019. She is known for her outspoken criticism of the government in Tehran and its treatment of women
In his opening statement on Tuesday, federal prosecutor Jacob Gutwillig said Iran's government offered to pay Amirov and Omarov $500,000 to orchestrate 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.'
Amirov's lawyer, Michael Martin, countered that prosecutors were relying on circumstantial evidence and 'the testimony of a murderer and a liar.'
Michael Perkins, a lawyer for Omarov, said the evidence would not show his client intended to kill Alinejad.
A representative for Iran's mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On the stand, Mehdiyev testified that he knew the target of the murder plot underlying the case against Amirov and Omarov as 'Masih.'
Mehdiyev said he is cooperating with prosecutors after pleading guilty to attempted murder and illegal possession of a firearm, and faces a minimum of 15 years in prison for the attempt on Alinejad's life and separate racketeering charges.
Prosecutors say Mehdiyev was hired by the associates Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov (pictured on Monday in a court sketch) to kill Alinejad. Amirov, 45, and Omarov, 40, have pleaded not guilty to murder for hire and attempted murder in aid of racketeering. They could face decades in prison if convicted
Detective Daniel Smith - the trial's first witness - also detailed Mehdiyev's arrest in July 2022, telling the court how he ran a stop sign in Alinejad's neighborhood and was found to be driving despite a suspended driver's license.
A search of his car turned up a loaded AK-47 assault rifle, Smith testified.
Defense attorneys for Amirov and Omarov told jurors in opening statements that their clients were not guilty and that prosecutors' evidence was merely circumstantial.
Attorney Michael Martin, representing Amirov, said his client had insisted for the 25 months since his January 2023 arrest that he was not guilty.
He promised to discredit the testimony of Mehdiyev, calling him a 'murderer, a kidnapper, an arsonist, a robber, an extortionist, a scammer, a fraudster and a liar.'
'That,' he added, 'will be undisputed.'
Attorney Michael Perkins, representing Omarov, called his client a 'scam artist' who had conned the Iranian government out of a lot of money.
'To earn that money, he did as close to nothing as possible,' Perkins said. 'Mr. Omarov had no intention, no agreement, with anyone to kill Ms. Alinejad.'
After Mehdiyev's testimony, Alinejad took to social media to say that she was 'overwhelmed with mixed emotions'.
'You might find this hard to believe - but for simply posting videos of myself showing my hair and encouraging women in Iran to do the same, the regime sent a man with an AK-47 to my house in Brooklyn to kill me,' she said.
Alinejad wrote that she could not be in the courtroom because she will be a trial witness.
After Mehdiyev's testimony, Alinejad took to social media to say that she was 'overwhelmed with mixed emotions'
She will describe why she stands up to the Iranian regime, Gutwillig told the court Tuesday, and why she 'refuses to back down'.
'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 said.
The prosecutor also told the court that the plot to assassinate Alinejad was part of Iran's more than decade-long quest to silence a woman who exposed the Iranian regime for human rights abuses and for silencing political expression.
Alinejad fled Iran following the country's disputed 2009 presidential election and became a US citizen in October 2019.
Gutwillig said the government of Iran had long attacked Alinejad, smearing her reputation, imprisoning her brother and trying to kidnap her and bring her back to Iran in 2020.
He said Iranian officials then agreed to the $500,000 assassination plot with the two men who wanted to make money and enhance their positions in their organized crime group.
'The defendants were hired guns for the government of Iran,' he said.
Alinejad (pictured in 2016) wrote that she could not be in the courtroom because she will be a trial witness. The prosecution says she will describe why she stands up to the Iranian regime and why she 'refuses to back down
He said Alinejad became a target of Iran after encouraging women in Iran to share messages and videos of women protesting the regime by refusing to wear head coverings, or hijabs, in public in Iran, subjecting them to arrest or beatings by the country's morality police.
'She shared them with millions. She shined a light on the government of Iran's oppression of women, and that enraged the regime' Gutwillig said.
Tehran has called separate allegations that four Iranian intelligence officers sought to kidnap Alinejad in 2021 'baseless'.
