Russian Mobsters Get 25 Years For Iranian Regime’s Plot To Kill Dissident On American Soil

In a Manhattan courtroom this week, justice caught up with two Russian mobsters who tried to carry out a murder-for-hire on behalf of the Iranian regime in New York City.

Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov — professional criminals with ties to the Russian underworld — each received 25-year sentences for plotting to kill Iranian-American dissident and journalist Masih Alinejad at her Brooklyn home. Their mission: silence her voice for speaking truth about the brutality of the Islamic Republic. Their pay: a promised $500,000 in what prosecutors called “blood money.”

The case, as Judge Colleen McMahon put it, was “difficult” and “uncomfortable.” Presiding over the Southern District of New York, the Clinton-appointed judge told the defendants they had attempted to “take a human life for no reason at all,” before reminding the courtroom that Alinejad and her family will live with the repercussions “for the rest of their lives.”

The plot began unraveling in 2022 when the would-be hitman, Khalid Mehdiyev — an Azerbaijani-born mobster working at a Bronx pizza shop — was arrested sitting outside Alinejad’s house with an AK-47, 66 rounds of ammunition, and a ski mask. He had been caught on Alinejad’s home security footage pacing through her yard, taking photos of her porch as proof for the men who had contracted him. When officers finally pulled him over, Mehdiyev turned informant. He told prosecutors that Amirov and Omarov had sent simple orders: “Shoot the journalist. Kill the journalist.”

It was a scheme that, if successful, would have been executed on behalf of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps — the terror arm of a regime that still chants “Death to America” while plotting its enemies’ deaths in the United States. Ruhollah Bazghandi, a senior Revolutionary Guard official, allegedly orchestrated the plot from Iran. He remains at large — a reminder that Tehran continues to direct murder attempts abroad while the West drags its feet on accountability.

Alinejad, who faced her would-be assassins in court, captured the bitter irony of her story. “Because of these criminals, I have to watch over my shoulder,” she said. Yet she walked out of court calling justice “beautiful.” Outside, she reflected, “Once upon a time, a little girl in Iran was taught to shout Death to America so loud the White House would shake. Life’s irony: the same country she was told to hate gave her a second life.  Yes, her adopted country, America, arrested the killers sent by her birth country, Iran to murder her in her sunflower garden in New York and sentenced them to 25 years in prison ????????✌️ From Iran to the United States of America, this is the story of freedom, survival, and truth that can’t be silenced.”

Once upon a time, a little girl in Iran was taught to shout Death to America so loud the White House would shake.
Life’s irony: the same country she was told to hate gave her a second life.
Yes her adopted country, America arrested the killers sent by her birth country, Iran to…

— Masih Alinejad ????️ (@AlinejadMasih) October 30, 2025

Her statement wasn’t mere sentiment — it was a testament to the moral chasm between a free nation and a regime built on fear. McMahon rejected prosecutors’ call for a 55-year sentence but gave both men the maximum 10 years on the murder-for-hire count — plus additional time for money laundering and conspiracy. The judge emphasized fairness: “It is not fair that Ms. Alinejad should live in constant fear,” she said. Fairness, in this case, cost two foreign agents of tyranny 25 years of their lives.

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Alinejad’s activism made her a target long before this plot. A former journalist turned reformist icon, she has spent years urging Iranian women to remove their hijabs and reject the regime’s religious coercion. That defiance “enraged the regime,” prosecutors said, spurring Iran’s agents to strike where they least expected resistance — inside the United States.

Yet Alinejad’s defiance remains unbroken. Appearing on CNN with Jake Tapper, she said she was “excited” to see justice served. “I was nervous to see them face-to-face, but seeing a female judge — this is the dream we are fighting for in Iran.” She spoke for countless Iranians silenced or killed for far less. “I said to the court that this is not about me,” she recalled. “They didn’t want just to kill me. They wanted to kill freedom of speech because my platform with more than 10 million followers just echoing the voice of millions of Iranians who say no to forced hijab and no to Islamic Republic, and that’s why they wanted to kill me.”

Her warning to Washington was direct: “Negotiation or talking to this regime is not going to save the lives of Americans.”  It was a warning backed by history. In 2021, federal prosecutors foiled a separate Iranian plot to kidnap Alinejad from her Brooklyn home and return her to Iran — a chilling preview of the regime’s reach. At the time, she told reporters that police stood guard outside her residence daily. “It’s a weird feeling,” she said. “I’m so not used to being protected by the police. This wouldn’t have happened in my homeland.”

Hillel Neuer of UN Watch, who attended the sentencing, noted Iran’s fear of her words: “Tyrannical regimes always fear the truth.”

I came to the court in New York to show full solidarity with my friend Masih Alinejad who was targeted for assassination by the Islamic regime in Iran. She speaks out for women’s rights and exposes their oppression. They fear her words. Tyrannical regimes always fear the truth. pic.twitter.com/HYY4rfcyB9

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) March 11, 2025