Khalid Mehdiyev, the admitted member of a Russian mob who was arrested in 2022 for a plot to assassinate Masih Alinejad. (Department of Justice.)

By Erik Uebelacker

Courthouse News

The would-be triggerman in a supposed Iranian-backed assassination plot testified Wednesday that he was outside journalist and activist Masih Alinejad's Brooklyn home in 2022 for one reason:

“Shoot the journalist, kill the journalist.”

If not for blowing a stop sign, Khalid Mehdiyev may have been successful in his mission. Instead, the admitted member of a Russian organized crime group was pulled over, arrested for driving with an expired license, then charged with Alinejad's attempted murder when law enforcement recovered a loaded AK-47, 66 rounds of ammunition and a ski mask in his vehicle.

Now, Mehdiyev has agreed to testify against the two men who, he says, put him up to the murder plot: Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, who prosecutors say conspired with the Iranian government to kill Alinejad in exchange for $500,000.

Earlier this week, prosecutors said Iran “desperately” wanted Alinejad dead and that her activism against the country’s hijab laws “enraged the regime.”

With Alinejad living in exile in Brooklyn, prosecutors say that Amirov and Omarov — also supposed members of the Russian mob — turned to the Yonkers-based Mehdiyev to carry out the assassination. Mehdiyev said that he agreed, not only because he was promised a cut of the payout, but also to boost his standing in the “Thieves in Law” mob.

Testifying Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, Mehdiyev said Omarov directed him to kill Alinejad in July 2022 through a series of WhatsApp messages. He said Omarov sent Alinejad’s Brooklyn address, a photograph of her home and a photo of Alinejad, herself, which was shown to the jurors on monitors in the courtroom.

“That’s the journalist that was supposed to be killed,” Mehdiyev testified.

For about a week, Mehdiyev said he surveilled Alinejad’s home. He took photos and videos from the outside and sent them to Omarov; the jury saw clips Mehdiyev shot from across the street, and others where he walked onto Alinejad’s porch. In one video, Mehdiyev touched the flowers just outside Alinejad’s front door.

He even sent direct messages to Alinejad on social media purporting to be a fan of her journalism who needed help with citizenship paperwork. Mehdiyev admitted that he was trying to “get in her life” because “I was trying to kill her.”

Mehdiyev talked about the assassination plot with a New York City-based man who Mehdiyev said helped him commit other crimes in the past. When Mehdiyev pulled up Alinejad’s picture, he said the man got nervous because “she’s famous” and “if we kill her, we’re going to be all over.”

Mehdiyev said the man suggested that they commit arson on Alinejad’s house rather than shoot her as planned.

“I said, ‘No, we have to kill her,’” Mehdiyev testified.

On July 29, 2022, Mehdiyev set out to do just that. But he said he noticed two undercover police cars — they had been tipped off about a suspicious vehicle in front of Alinejad’s residence — and tried to drive away. He was arrested, and reported the bad news to Omarov on a smuggled cell phone.

“How the fuck you in jail?” Omarov said, according to Mehdiyev.

Mehdiyev testified that, at Omarov’s direction, he penned a letter claiming that Alinejad was framing him for the assassination attempt in a bid to get released. “I don’t have no problem with nobody,” he said he wrote in the letter, admitting Wednesday that it was a lie.

Given Mehdiyev’s expansive rap sheet — he testified earlier this week that he kidnapped a businessman’s son and held him for a $1 million ransom — defense attorneys for Amirov and Omarov warned jurors to take his testimony with a grain of salt.

“A few embellishments and lies will be easy for Mr. Mehdiyev,” Michael Martin, Amirov’s lawyer, argued.

Michael Perkins, an attorney for Omarov, called Mehdiyev “a witness you wouldn’t buy a used car from.”

Mehdiyev will return to the witness stand on Thursday for cross-examination. He’ll first be probed by Martin, who already told the court there's insufficient evidence tying Amirov to the actions of Mehdiyev, since Mehdiyev said he mostly communicated with Omarov about the assassination.

Alinejad could testify as early as this week; she is expected to tell the court about the feminist social media campaign she spearheaded that drew the ire of Iranian government officials.