Revisiting Two Failed Conspiracies by the Islamic Republic Against Masih Alinejad in New York Times Report

U.S. prosecutors have accused the Iranian government of plotting to kidnap journalist Masih Alinejad after a previous attempt to lure her to Turkey failed. According to the New York Times report on Monday, March 11, the most brazen effort by the Islamic Republic to silence Alinejad occurred three years ago in 2022, when prosecutors stated that agents linked to the Revolutionary Guard conspired to kill the Iranian journalist by hiring members of a Russian criminal group. U.S. officials indicated that this conspiracy fell apart after a member of the Russian criminal gang was caught trying to break into Alinejad's home in Brooklyn, New York. Police discovered a firearm, 66 rounds of ammunition, and a ski mask in the suspect's vehicle. Consequently, the trial of Rafat Amirov and Polad Amirov, Georgian nationals, began on Monday, March 11, in federal court in Manhattan, New York, on charges of conspiracy and hiring mercenaries for murder. More details about the Islamic Republic's revenge against its opponents are expected to emerge in court. After U.S. federal officials first revealed the murder plot against Alinejad two years ago, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland warned that the U.S. would not tolerate foreign powers threatening Americans or attempting to silence or harm them. Prosecutors plan to explain how Rafat Amirov and Polad Amirov operated within the competitive internal dynamics of the Russian mafia organization known as 'Thieves in Law,' which dates back to Joseph Stalin's prison camps. According to the New York Times, a former member of this mafia group, who was involved in the conspiracy against Alinejad, is expected to testify in court after cooperating with the authorities. While this individual is referred to in court documents as 'CW-1,' the New York Times speculates that he may be Khalid Mahdiyev, an Azerbaijani national who was arrested outside Alinejad's home. The New York Times confirmed this speculation by reporting that Khalid Mahdiyev's name does not appear in the indictment against Rafat Amirov, Polad Amirov, and several other defendants in this case. According to prosecutors, the cooperating witness, who was in federal prison in Brooklyn with Rafat Amirov, will provide more information, including about the half-million-dollar payment for the murder contract against Alinejad. Prosecutors stated that they would present 'significant electronic communications' discovered in Rafat Amirov's belongings that substantiate this murder conspiracy. They claim that Polad Amirov and Khalid Mahdiyev had previously been involved in schemes related to kidnapping and extraterritorial murders to enrich themselves and strengthen their positions within the Russian criminal gang. Based on court documents, Iranian officials, seven years ago in 2018, offered money to Alinejad's relatives in Iran with the potential aim of kidnapping and imprisoning her, asking them to invite the journalist to Turkey. A year after Alinejad's relatives rejected this offer, her brother was sentenced to eight years in prison. Two years later, several Iranian government agents, including an intelligence official named Alireza Shavareqi Farahani, were accused of conspiring to kidnap Alinejad. The indictment stated that the defendants intended to use a high-speed boat to abduct the journalist from New York and transfer her to Venezuela, which has close ties to the Iranian government. Prosecutors believe that after the conspirators' failure to kidnap this well-known opponent of the Iranian government, Ruhollah Bazghandi, the former head of the counterintelligence department of the Revolutionary Guard's intelligence organization, initiated a plan to kill Alinejad by directing a network in Iran. The Manhattan court in New York has placed Ruhollah Bazghandi and three others under investigation for their involvement in this plot. According to the indictment, members of this network approached Rafat Amirov, a dual Azerbaijani-Russian citizen residing in Iran, which led to his contact with Polad Amirov, a Georgian national living in Eastern Europe. As part of this operation, Khalid Mahdiyev, after receiving $30,000 from this network, began procuring weapons and surveilling Alinejad's home. According to an FBI agent, police stopped Khalid Mahdiyev's vehicle after receiving a report from Alinejad about suspicious behavior, and a search of his vehicle led to the discovery of a firearm, resulting in charges against him for possessing an illegal firearm. The assassination of political and ideological opponents and critics of the Islamic Republic began in December 1979 with the murder of Shahriar Shafiq, the son of Ashraf Pahlavi, in Paris, and has continued both inside and outside Iran. Although no one outside the Islamic Republic's officials knows the exact number of these murders, the Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation recently published a research report titled 'Iran: State Violence Without Borders,' documenting hundreds of extrajudicial killings by the Islamic Republic. This report mentions at least 862 cases and states that the state violence of the Islamic Republic of Iran includes 'committing murder' and 'kidnapping' in countries such as the United States, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and Germany. Reuters also reported in October 2023, citing court documents and statements from Western governments, that the Islamic Republic of Iran has been involved in at least 33 assassination or kidnapping attempts since 2020. In the United States, at least five terrorist plots by the Islamic Republic of Iran have been recorded since 2020.