Canadian Iranian journalist and documentary filmmaker
Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad took to the stand in a Manhattan Federal court Tuesday recounting the chilling moment she came face-to-face with the man who had been sent to kill her.
Khalid Mehdiyev, the man who has now admitted he intended to kill Alinejad at the behest of the Iranian government allegedly, was stalking her house for several days in the summer of 2022 when she saw him.
“He had a phone in his hand … I saw he was talking,” Alinejad said in court, recalling how she thought the man was just admiring her garden.
Alinejad had recently returned from a trip in San Fransico and was getting ready to go another trip, this time with a friend to Connecticut when she saw Mehidyev, who she described as "gigantic" and "the big guy" outside her Brooklyn home near her pristine garden.
“I just had all the tomatoes, basil, cucumbers in my hands. I was walking to go to my inside door. When I was walking in the drive path, I saw the guy — the big guy.”
She even approached the man hired to kill her momentarily, thinking he was saying something to her. He wasn't.
"I am sorry. I thought you were talking to me," Alinejad told him, she said in court.
Alinejad wasn't suspicious of Mehdiev at first. Strangers would often stop and take photos from her garden. But this one was different, she felt.
"He was in the sunflowers staring straight into my eyes," Alinejad recalled.
The chilling incident convinced her something was off. Shortly after, she called the FBI.
The encounter happened on July 28, 2022, the same day assassin Mehdiyev was arrested by police, found with a ski mask and loaded AK-47 assault style rifle in his vehicle just outside of Alinejad’s Brooklyn home.
The day could have been the end to Alinejad's life.
“I was trying to get the easy way to kill her," the bearded Mehdiyev confessed in the Manhattan courtroom Thursday.
But his assassination plans failed with some errors.
Mehdiyev ran a stop sign as authorities trailed him, leading to his arrest.
Mehdiyev, a member of the Thieves in Law gang said he received orders from Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov at the behest of Iran’s government to kill the journalist who uses her platform to expose the Islamic Republic’s repression.
As a government witness, who has made a deal with the Feds, Mehdiyev pleaded guilty to attempted murder and gun charges, but Omarav and Amirov are both on trial.
Masih Alinejad confronts the accused in court
When Alinejad walked into the courtroom, she was wearing her signature flower in her hair and a white scarf representing her campaign "White Wednesday" against the compulsorily hijab.
It was her first time coming face-to-face with alleged co-conspirators of Mahdiyev in the murder for hire plot.
The courtroom on 500 Pearl Street in Manhattan was packed for her appearance.
Anxiety filled the air in the courtroom until Alinejad made her testimony. Voices gasped as she entered, walking past the two accused.
Women, Life, Freedom protestors who had their eyes blinded by Iran's security forces at the height of the nationwide uprisings filled the courtroom to support the woman who fights for them.
Among them was Mersedeh Shahinkar, who had lost an eye after being shot by Iran's security forces during the 2022 protests.
There was a moment in the courtroom when Shahinkar blew a kiss to Alinejad who was in the witness stand. She noticed, beaming at the gesture of love and blew a kiss back.
It was also the first time Alinejad took the stand as a witness, facing those accused of plotting her murder. Instead of being dead - she lived to testify.
Alinejad, undeterred, stared down the two men on trial, radiating strength as she testified.
The court also heard testimony from FBI agent Stefanie Roddy from the Executive Inspector Division. Agent Roddy oversaw the foreign transfer of custody of Amirov from an unnamed foreign country.
Roddy revealed evidence obtained from Amirov's transfer which included a residence permit from the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iranian bank currency and an Iranian bank slip.
Photos of the Iranian residence permit were shown in court, revealing an alias name for Amirov Farhaddin Mirzoev.
The court also played a recording from the FBI where Amirov admitted that he resided in Tehran, Iran.
The case before the courts is part of a broader push by the US government attempts to crackdown on transnational repression.
