Russian Mobsters Jailed for Plotting Iranian Hit on U.S. Soil

In a chilling case that underscores the global reach of authoritarian regimes and the disturbing alliances they forge two Russian mobsters were sentenced this week to 25 years in prison for a plot to assassinate an Iranian-American dissident on American soil. The mission, ordered by Tehran’s terror-linked Revolutionary Guard, was to silence one woman’s voice for daring to speak the truth.

Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, seasoned criminals tied to Russia’s underworld, attempted to carry out a murder-for-hire against journalist and activist Masih Alinejad, a prominent critic of the Iranian regime who has spent years exposing its brutal suppression of women’s rights.

Their payment? $500,000 in blood money. Their orders? As prosecutors put it: “Shoot the journalist. Kill the journalist.”

The failed hit, which unfolded in Brooklyn, was no rogue operation. Federal prosecutors confirmed that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Islamic Republic’s infamous terror machine, was behind the plot. The regime enlisted Russian criminals likely to avoid direct fingerprints and sent them to kill a U.S. resident for the “crime” of free speech.

Alinejad, whose platform reaches over 10 million people, has long been a thorn in the side of Iran’s hardline leadership. Her activism, urging Iranian women to remove their hijabs and reject theocratic rule, has ignited a movement inside Iran one the regime is desperate to crush.

This wasn’t their first attempt. In 2021, a separate Iranian plot to kidnap Alinejad from her home and force her back to Iran was thwarted. This is a regime that sends hit squads to American neighborhoods.

And what has the Biden administration done? Negotiate. Appease. Turn a blind eye to Tehran’s crimes in hopes of reviving a dead nuclear deal. All while Iran funds terror proxies across the Middle East, holds American hostages, and now — sends assassins after U.S. residents.

The plot fell apart in 2022 when a Bronx pizza shop worker-turned-hitman, Khalid Mehdiyev, was arrested outside Alinejad’s home with an AK-47, 66 rounds of ammo, and a ski mask. He had been stalking her for days, caught on camera pacing her yard and photographing her front porch.

When police pulled him over, Mehdiyev confessed. His orders came from Amirov and Omarov two men now headed to prison for decades, convicted on counts of conspiracy, money laundering, and attempted murder-for-hire.

At sentencing, Judge Colleen McMahon delivered a powerful rebuke, telling the defendants they had tried to “take a human life for no reason at all.” She handed down the maximum sentence on the murder-for-hire charge and additional years for related crimes. “It is not fair that Ms. Alinejad should live in constant fear,” she said before doing her part to ensure she doesn’t.

Alinejad’s story is more than a personal tragedy it’s a reminder that the Iranian regime will go to any lengths to silence dissent, even inside the United States. And with Russia now acting as a subcontractor for Iranian terror, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Alinejad faced her would-be killers in court and walked out stronger. “Once upon a time,” she said, “a little girl in Iran was taught to shout ‘Death to America’… Life’s irony: the same country she was told to hate gave her a second life.”

“They didn’t want just to kill me,” she told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “They wanted to kill freedom of speech.”

Her warning to Washington was sharp: “Negotiation or talking to this regime is not going to save the lives of Americans.”

She’s right. The Islamic Republic of Iran is not a misunderstood actor. It is a state sponsor of terrorism. And this case involving Russia, the Revolutionary Guard, and a plot to execute an American dissident in her New York garden proves it beyond doubt.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration continues to chase diplomacy with murderers. At what point do we start protecting our own?

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