(Courthouse News) Federal prosecutors on Wednesday told a jury that Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, two supposed members of the Russian mob charged with the attempted murder for hire of Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad, took half a million dollars in “blood money” from Iranian officials to kill her.
For the past week, jurors heard evidence from the government that suggested Amirov and Omarov tapped a fellow mobster based in Yonkers, New York, to gun Alinejad down in her Brooklyn home in 2022. According to prosecutors, Iran paid the team $500,000 to make it happen.
Alinejad, who lives in exile in New York City, said her work has long drawn the ire of the Iranian government — particularly her ongoing social media campaign that encourages women to defy Iran’s mandatory hijab law.
