Three suspects in Iran's murder plot on activist to stand trial in US court

Brooklyn-based Iranian dissident activist Masih Alinejad says she will testify in a Manhattan federal court trial starting Monday against three men accused of plotting to assassinate her on behalf of the Islamic Republic.

"The US Department of Justice is prosecuting these three men in federal court, and I must look them in the eye and testify," Alinejad said in a video message on Sunday.

The two-week trial will begin on Monday, March 10, according to Alinejad.

Rafat Amirov, 43, from Iran, Polad Omarov, 38, a citizen of both the Czech Republic and Slovenia, and Khalid Mehdiyev, 24, from Yonkers, New York, were indicted in a New York federal court on charges of money laundering and murder-for-hire in 2023.

The Justice Department charged the three men in an alleged plot that originated in Iran to kill Alinejad.

The Islamic Republic "is not only killing innocent people in Iran but is also targeting them in the heart of America and Europe," Alinejad said in her message.

"Here, in a federal court in Manhattan, the truth will be laid bare before the world."

Mehdiyev was arrested in New York in 2022 for possessing a rifle near the residence of Alinejad. Amirov was taken into custody in the Southern District of New York in January 2023. Omarov was extradited to the US by the Czech Republic in February 2024 after his arrest in January 2023.

The three were part of an Eastern European criminal organization called the "Thieves in Law".

Iran’s partnership with criminal gangs is partly born out of necessity. According to Western officials, the government’s own operatives face increasing scrutiny and surveillance from intelligence services, limiting their ability to conduct missions abroad. By turning to these criminal groups, the Islamic Republic circumvents the obstacles while tapping into networks that are already embedded in the West.

In 2021, US officials uncovered a plot involving two Hells Angels members hired to kill an Iranian defector and his wife in Maryland.