2 Accused in Tehran-Backed Plot To Kill Iranian Dissident To Stand Trial
Two men, accused of involvement in a Russian organized crime subgroup, are set to face trial on Monday in Manhattan federal court for their alleged roles in a 2021 plot to assassinate an Iranian dissident living in New York. Federal prosecutors claim that Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps hired the defendants—45-year-old Rafat Amirov and 40-year-old Polad Omarov—to kill an Iranian American journalist and activist who has publicly criticized the Iranian government’s treatment of women.
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Both Amirov and Omarov have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder for hire and attempted murder in aid of racketeering. While Omarov’s lawyer, Elena Fast, emphasized that her client is presumed innocent, legal representatives for the defendants have disputed the characterization of their clients as members of the “Russian mob,” a label the prosecutors insist applies to a sub-group within an organized crime network.
Although prosecutors have not officially named the intended target in court documents, Iranian American journalist Masih Alinejad—who left Iran in 2009 and has been a vocal critic of the regime—told Reuters that she was the focus of not only this alleged plot but also an earlier kidnapping attempt by Iranian intelligence officers. “I am very excited to join the public trial as a witness to testify against those who were hired by the Islamic Republic to kill me,” Alinejad said in an interview, describing the opportunity as a “second life.”
