NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Masih Alinejad, the charismatic Iranian dissident and journalist who prosecutors say used to be centered via her former native land’s govt for assassination, is about to testify Tuesday on the trial of 2 males accused within the plot.
Alinejad, an creator and contributor to Voice of The united states, is scheduled to take the witness stand at noon at a Long island federal trial that has already featured testimony from the person who says he used to be employed to kill her in the summertime of 2022.
She fled Iran following the rustic’s disputed 2009 presidential election and was a U.S. citizen in October 2019. In a gap observation final week, a prosecutor mentioned she’s going to testify about why she stands as much as the Iranian regime and why she “refuses to backtrack.”
Her testimony is being offered on the trial of Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, natives of Azerbaijan, which stocks a border and cultural ties with Iran. The lads have pleaded now not in charge to a couple of fees, together with murder-for-hire.
Protection legal professionals for Amirov and Omarov have advised jurors that prosecutors’ proof used to be simply circumstantial.
Khalid Mehdiyev, a central authority witness who says he labored for the Russian mob ahead of and after he got here to the U.S. from Azerbaijan, used to be arrested after his automotive used to be stopped close to Alinejad’s Brooklyn house for rolling previous a forestall signal. An AK-47-style rifle used to be present in his backseat.
He testified for the federal government after pleading in charge to a couple of fees in Brooklyn and Long island courts, together with tried homicide, conspiracy and guns fees.
Mehdiyev, attesting in a monotone, mentioned he used to be paid $30,000 of the $160,000 he anticipated to be paid for killing Alinejad. To organize for the activity, he took pictures and video photos out of doors her Brooklyn place of abode, the place he did surveillance for hours an afternoon once in a while.
He testified that he reached out to her on social media, complimenting her as “the most productive journalist.”
When requested why he reached out, he responded: “I used to be seeking to have a dialog along with her so I will get into her lifestyles. … As a result of I used to be seeking to get the straightforward option to kill her.”
As he testified final week, Alinejad posted on social media that she used to be “beaten with combined feelings.”
“You could in finding this difficult to imagine — however for merely posting movies of myself appearing my hair and inspiring girls in Iran to do the similar, the regime despatched a person with an AK-47 to my space in Brooklyn to kill me,” she mentioned.
It used to be a theme dropped at the jury via Assistant U.S. Legal professional Jacob Gutwillig on the trial’s get started.
He mentioned Alinejad was a goal of Iran after encouraging girls in Iran to proportion messages and movies of ladies protesting the regime via refusing to put on head coverings, or hijabs, in public in Iran, subjecting them to arrest or beatings via the rustic’s morality police.
“She shared them with thousands and thousands. She shined a gentle at the govt of Iran’s oppression of ladies, and that enraged the regime,” Gutwillig mentioned.
The trial’s pass judgement on advised jurors Monday that they could also be deliberating via the tip of this week.
