MANHATTAN (CN) - A Manhattan judge on Wednesday sentenced two members of the Russian mob to 25 years in prison in their botched murder-for-hire scheme of Iranian dissident journalist Masih Alinejad.

Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov were convicted earlier this year on charges including murder for hire and conspiracy after a federal jury in Manhattan heard evidence tying them to an Iran-backed plot to kill Alinejad at her Brooklyn home in 2022. Prosecutors said the Iranian government offered the duo $500,000 in "blood money" to make it happen.

But the plot was foiled when their would-be triggerman, Khalid Mehdiyev, flipped and cooperated with prosecutors after he was arrested outside of the target's home.

During a weeklong trial earlier this year, Mehdiyev, an Azerbaijani mobster who worked at a Bronx pizza shop at the time, recalled the simple instructions he was given by Amirov and Omarov before his arrest:

"Shoot the journalist, kill the journalist," he said on the witness stand.

Jurors saw clips from Alinejad's home security camera of Mehdiyev milling about her yard and even walking up to her porch, taking photos and videos of the house to prove to Amirov and Omarov - who he said contracted him for the killing - that he could accomplish the hit.

Alinejad said she encountered the "gigantic" would-be hitman lingering around her sunflower garden just days before he was arrested. 

"He was in the sunflowers staring into my eyes," Alinejad testified.

But Mehdiyev attracted suspicion by repeatedly ordering food to his car, parked just outside of Alinejad's home for several days. On July 29, 2022, NYPD officers pulled Mehdiyev over after he blew a stop sign, arrested him for driving with an expired license, then found a loaded AK-47, 66 rounds of ammunition and a ski mask in his car, uncovering the plot.

After his arrest, Mehdiyev said he flipped on Amirov and Omarov after learning his promised cut of cash was a smaller slice of the $500,000 than he had anticipated. 

Omarov sought no more than a 10-year sentence for his role in the scheme. Amirov, who was a higher-ranked mobster as a "vor," sought 13 years maximum.

Prosecutors asked for 55-year sentences for each man, arguing they each played "indispensable roles" in Alinejad's assassination plot.

Alinejad is an outspoken critic of the Iranian regime. A journalist-turned-activist, she drew the ire of the nation's government by speaking out against its morality police and encouraging women not to comply with Iran's mandatory hijab laws.

That "enraged the regime," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacob Gutwillig said during the trial's opening statements, prompting it to put a bounty on her head that Amirov and Omarov tried to capitalize on.

Ruhollah Bazghandi, a senior member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, is charged in the scheme as being the man to hire the duo in the first place. He remains at large.

Source: Courthouse News Service