'I Was Treated as a Business Transaction': Brooklyn Woman Marked for Death by Iran Tells Court of 'Humiliation' as Would-Be Assassins Get 25 Years

"The two men convicted of having been hired by people tied to the Iranian government to assassinate the Iranian-American journalist and human rights activist Masih Alinejad in New York City were sentenced at a federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan on Wednesday."

"The presiding district judge, Colleen McMahon, sentenced Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov to 25 years in prison each, telling the defendants that they had committed a "terrible, terrible crime with terrible, terrible repercussions on some very fine people.""

"In March, after a two-week long trial at the Southern District of New York, the two men, who were high-ranking members of the Gulici, a faction of the Russian Mob, were convicted of having accepted a $500,000 bounty from the Iranian regime to orchestrate the murder of Ms. Alinejad outside of her home in Brooklyn. Neither convict is an American citizen. Amirov, 46, who was born in Iran, but grew up in the Soviet Union, and Omarov, 40, who was born in Georgia, were arrested overseas in January 2023 and extradited to New York, where they were charged with murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, money laundering, attempted murder in the aid of racketeering, and firearm use in relation to attempted murder. The jury took under four hours to find the two defendants guilty on all five counts."

Two high-ranking members of the Gulici faction of the Russian mob were sentenced to 25 years each for conspiring to assassinate Masih Alinejad in Brooklyn after accepting a $500,000 bounty tied to the Iranian regime. The defendants, Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, were arrested overseas in January 2023 and extradited to New York. A jury found them guilty on five counts after a two-week trial. Charges included murder-for-hire, conspiracy, money laundering, attempted murder in aid of racketeering, and firearm use. Masih Alinejad, a longtime Brooklyn resident and U.S. citizen, has repeatedly criticized the Iranian government and says she has moved 21 times since the attempt.

Read at The New York Sun