Two men - Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov - were found guilty of conspiring to murder Iranian-American human rights activist and journalist Masih Alinejad, who lives in exile in New York, in the United States, this Thursday.
The defendants were Russian mafia bosses, according to The Guardian.
The plan involved hiring a hitman who would carry out the murder, which prosecutors say was financed by the Iranian government.
Iran is said to have offered around 461,000 euros in July 2022 for a scheme to kill Alinejad, after its attempts to harass, defame and intimidate her failed.
The 48-year-old activist became a target for the Iranian government as part of her online campaigns where she encouraged women to record videos showing their hair, which violated decrees requiring them to cover it in public.
"I am relieved that after almost three years, the men who conspired to kill me have been found guilty. But make no mistake, the real perpetrators of this crime are still in power in Iran," Alinejad told the Associated Press. Khalid Mehdiyev, a former member of the Russian mafia who lived in Yonkers and worked at a pizza restaurant, testified that he was hired as a hitman to carry out Alinejad's death. Like Amirov and Omarov, the gunman is from Azerbaijan, which shares a border and cultural ties with Iran.
Mehdiyev had purchased a firearm, but his car was stopped by local authorities - who found the weapon in the back seat - in July 2022. A doorbell camera at the activist's home recorded the gunman standing near the entrance to her home.
In October last year, an officer in Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, along with three other men with ties to the country's government, were charged with taking part in the attempted assassination of Masih Alinejad, but none are currently in custody.
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