Politics
Jury Hears Details of Failed Plot to Kill Iranian Dissident in New York
Prosecutors say figures in Tehran hired two men to kill Masih Alinejad, a journalist who had criticized Iran’s head scarf laws.
In the summer of 2022, a group of people plotting the murder of an Iranian dissident living in New York City began sharing “chilling intelligence,” a federal prosecutor said in court on Tuesday.
That included photographs of the dissident, Masih Alinejad, her husband, their son and their Brooklyn home. The group also shared information about where she bought coffee and what time she watered the flowers in her garden. They even kept track of when the program she hosted appeared on Voice of America Persian, a U.S. government-owned broadcaster, and when she talked on the phone.
The aim was to retaliate against Ms. Alinejad for criticizing one of Iran’s “core rules” requiring women to wear head scarves, the prosecutor, Jacob Gutwillig, said during his opening statement in the trial of two men, Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, charged in the failed plot against her.
Ms. Alinejad had “shined a light on the government of Iran’s oppression of women,” Mr. Gutwillig told jurors, and “enraged the regime.”
The two men “were hired by the government of Iran to assassinate an American citizen on United States soil,” Mr. Gutwillig said. “They were going to gun her down at home, right here in New York City.”
The plot against Ms. Alinejad fell apart when police officers responding to a report of suspicious activity arrested an Azerbaijani man, who the authorities said had tried to open the door to her home. The officers then found an AK-47-style assault rifle inside the man’s vehicle.
