By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Two men accused of being members of a Russian organized crime group will face trial in the United States on Monday over what prosecutors call an unsuccessful Tehran-backed attempt to kill an Iranian dissident living in New York.
Federal prosecutors say Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps in 2021 hired Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, members of a “Russian mob” sub-group, to kill an Iranian American journalist and activist who has spoken out against the Iranian government’s treatment of women.
Amirov, 45, and Omarov, 40, have pleaded not guilty to murder for hire and attempted murder in aid of racketeering.
Omarov’s lawyer, Elena Fast, said in a statement, “Mr. Omarov is presumed innocent.” Amirov’s lawyers did not respond to a request for comment. In court papers, lawyers for both men have said it was “inaccurate” to refer to them as members of the Russian mob.
Prosecutors have not named the target of the alleged plot, who they have said in court papers is expected to testify at the trial.
Masih Alinejad, a journalist who left Iran in 2009, has told Reuters she was the target of both the alleged murder plot and a previous alleged attempt by Iranian intelligence officers to kidnap her and take her to Iran.
Alinejad has brought attention to women in Iran protesting laws requiring head coverings, as well as accounts of Iranians killed in demonstrations in 2019.
“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 on Friday. “It’s like I’ve been given a second life.”
The trial, before U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon, kicks off with jury selection on Monday in Manhattan federal court.
The charges were part of a broader push by the Justice Department during former President Joe Biden’s administration to crack down on transnational repression, or efforts by U.S. adversaries like Iran and China to silence dissidents on American soil.
The two-week trial could provide a window into alleged ties between Iran’s government and criminal organizations prosecutors say it hires to do its “dirty work.”
A representative of Iran’s U.N. mission did not respond to a request for comment on the trial of Amirov and Omarov.
U.S. prosecutors in 2021 brought charges against four Iranian intelligence officers over the alleged kidnapping plot. They are at large, and Tehran has called the allegations baseless.
The alleged murder plot came to light in 2022, when Khalid Mehdiyev – an alleged co-conspirator of Amirov and Omarov – was arrested outside Alinejad’s New York home with an AK-47 rifle.
Prosecutors say a Revolutionary Guard brigadier general named Ruhollah Bazghandi began monitoring Alinejad in July 2021. They say Bazghandi later hired Amirov, an alleged Russian mob leader living in Iran at the time, to kill her. Omarov and Mehdiyev are also part of the mob, prosecutors said.
Bazghandi was also charged, but is not in U.S. custody.
Mehdiyev, 26, pleaded not guilty to murder-for-hire charges in February 2023, but the status of his case is unclear. Prison records show he was released from U.S. custody on May 19, 2023.
Neither a Justice Department spokesperson nor a lawyer for Mehdiyev responded to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Rosalba O’Brien)
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