Two Russian mobsters were sentenced to 25 years in federal prison Wednesday for a failed plot to assassinate Iranian American journalist and women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad at her New York’s Brooklyn home — a plan U.S. prosecutors say was orchestrated and financed by the Iranian government to silence her global advocacy.
In a Manhattan courtroom, Alinejad faced her would-be killers, Rafat Amirov, 46, and Polad Omarov, 41, calling them agents of fear who tried but failed to break her spirit. “I crossed an ocean to come to America and have a normal life, and I don’t have a normal life,” she told the court. “I’m a brave woman. I’m a strong woman. They couldn’t break me. But they brought fear to my life. These criminals turned my life upside down.”
U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon condemned the plot as a “terrible, terrible crime” and said her sentence should serve as a warning to any foreign government or criminal network that seeks to carry out violence on American soil. “This kind of conduct will not be tolerated by the United States,” she said.
The case exposed an elaborate network linking organized crime and Iranian intelligence. Prosecutors said Amirov and Omarov, both high-ranking members of the Russian mob faction known as the Gulici, were motivated by a $500,000 payment from Tehran to arrange Alinejad’s killing in July 2022, after previous attempts to kidnap her failed.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Lockard told the court that Iranian officials hoped the assassination would send a message to women defying the regime. “The intended target was not just Masih Alinejad,” Lockard said. “It was the millions of women who look to her to be their voice and to shine a light on the regime’s brutality.”
Alinejad, 49, fled Iran in 2009 after being banned from journalism. She later built an international following from New York City through her campaign “My Stealthy Freedom,” encouraging Iranian women to film themselves removing headscarves in protest of compulsory hijab laws.
The 2022 plot came “chillingly near success,” prosecutors said, interrupted only by chance — Alinejad happened to be out of town when a hired gunman arrived at her Brooklyn residence. U.S. law enforcement discovered and disrupted the plan before it could be executed.
Outside court, Alinejad, wearing a symbolic red coat “because the killers wanted to see me covered in blood,” declared victory over fear. “Justice is beautiful,” she said. “They wanted to see me dead on my porch, but I am alive. I am standing.”
Standing beside her was Barry Rosen, a former American hostage in Iran, who called Alinejad “one of the most important voices in the world.” Alinejad, clutching a yellow sunflower, vowed to continue fighting for the women of Iran despite years of threats and constant relocation. “Now I cannot even ride a bicycle with the wind in my hair,” she said. “I have to look over my shoulder. But I will never stop.”
AP story
