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The bumbling, bargain-bin hitman hired to assassinate an exiled Iranian-American journalist botched the high-stakes Brooklyn hit in spectacular fashion — including by trying to open her door, ordering food to his car as he lurked outside her home and then running a stop sign, leading to his arrest.
Jurors in Manhattan federal court heard Wednesday how Khalid Mehdiyev — a 27-year-old self-professed member of the Russian mob — inevitably tipped off his target, activist Masih Alinejad, in July 2022 despite trying to cozy up to the author with grammatically incorrect texts.
“U the best journalist,” the hitman typed in one text shown to the jury.
“Hey. How are you. I wanna make immigrants paper, do u can help for that?” read another, which referred to Alinejad helping with asylum requests.
“I was trying to get into her life,” Mehdiyev, a bearded bear of a man originally from the Caspian Sea country of Azerbaijan, said in a cold tone that betrayed no emotion.
“I was trying to get the easy way to kill her.”
But authorities foiled the cold-hearted and allegedly calculated hitman’s plot on July 28, 2022, when they arrested him in his Subaru Forester SUV with Illinois plates as he rolled through a stop sign — just outside Alinejad’s Flatbush home — after a series of other staggering slipups.
Cops searched the car and found a loaded AK-47 and a ski mask — and it seems like they were just in the nick of time.
“I was there to try to kill the journalist,” said Mehdiyev, of Yonkers.
Alinejad — who is known for her constant, outspoken criticism of the Iranian regime and how it treats the nation’s women — has survived several assassination attempts since fleeing Iran after its contested 2009 elections.
A prominent figure on international Farsi-language satellite channels that often pillory Iranian leadership, she has worked as a contractor for US-funded Voice of America’s Farsi-language network since 2015 and became an American citizen in 2019.
Mehdiyev’s testimony came during the second day of proceedings against Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, fellow natives of Azerbaijan who allegedly hired Mehdiyev to kill Alinejad — and are now on trial for murder-for-hire and attempted murder in aid of racketeering. The trio were part of the same gang in Azerbaijan.
At the trial’s opening Tuesday, federal prosecutor Jacob Gutwillig said Iran’s government offered to pay the two alleged criminals $500,000 to orchestrate Alinejad’s murder.
“The defendants were hired guns for the government of Iran,” Gutwillig said. “Masih Alinejad was almost gunned down on the streets of New York City by a hitman sent by the defendants.”
Amirov’s lawyer, Michael Martin, countered that prosecutors were relying on circumstantial evidence and “the testimony of a murderer and a liar.”
Amirov, 45, and Omarov, 40, have pleaded not guilty to the charges, which will imprison them for decades if they’re convicted.
Alinejad has said the Iranian government’s repeated attempts to kill her — which the nation has denied — have made her “more determined to give voice to powerful women inside Iran who are facing the same killers every single day.”
The defendants’ 2023 indictment said Alinejad has been a target of Tehran’s theocracy dating back at least seven years.
The documents didn’t exactly point the finger at the Shiite regime for the plot — but instead blamed “individuals in Iran” for tasking the defendants with killing her.
About a year before the aborted hit, an Iranian intelligence official and three others were indicted on charges they had plotted to kidnap Alinejad.
Mehdiyev made no bones in court about his shadowy past, testifying that he’d directed murders, kidnappings and extortion plots during a life of crime that began about a decade ago in his homeland.
He decided to cooperate with the feds after pleading guilty to attempted murder and gun charges — and he faces at least 15 years in prison for unrelated racketeering charges and trying to kill Alinejad.
Mehdiyev — who said he was paid $30,000 for the botched hit — noted that he stopped texting the almost-victim after an assassin colleague told him it was a bad idea.
The same associate suggested torching Alinejad’s place instead of shooting her — she’s famous, the associate said, and the cops would be “all over us” if they executed an up-close hit.
“I said no,” Mehdiyev said. “We have to kill her.”
On Wednesday, jurors watched a recording of the journalist’s front porch that Mehdiyev sent Omarov as he was casing her house — and Ring doorbell footage of him lurking outside her home.
But he messed up when he ran the stop sign, leading cops to find the mask and rifle — which had its serial number obliterated, according to the affidavit.
He’d been staking out the house for two days, starting on July 27, and had been parked outside for several hours on the 28th, court docs said.
During that time, he behaved “suspiciously,” getting in and out of the car and amazingly even ordering food to his stakeout spot.
Then he walked up to the house, tried to look inside the windows and jiggled the door handle for good measure, the affidavit said. At some point, Alinejad grew suspicious of the amateur would-be assassin and reported him to the FBI.
Cops stopped him that afternoon and searched the car after figuring out Mehdiyev was driving without a license — and that’s when they found his rifle in a suitcase in the backseat.
When the cops asked him why he was there, Mehdiyev said he was looking for somewhere to live since his rent was too high. He’d walked up to the home to see if the owner would rent a room, he claimed. But changed his mind halfway through.
Mehdiyev also said he didn’t know anything about the big assault rifle, which he claimed was sitting there when he borrowed the car in the morning, according to the affidavit.
In court, he acted cool — testifying that he had the mask to “cover my face when I was going to kill the journalist.”
After he was picked up and imprisoned, he managed to get a contraband cell phone and call Omarov.
“Where the f–k you at? How the f–k are you in jail? You were at the journalist’s house!” Omarov said, according to Mehdiyev.
Omarov also threatened to kill his entire family in his rage.
For her part, Alinejad wrote on X that her would-be assassin’s testimony left her with a racing heart. She is expected to testify at the trial.
“I’m overwhelmed with mixed emotions,” she wrote. “I love my life, and I don’t want to die — but I’m willing to sacrifice it for millions of women and men in Iran who long for the same freedom that many in America take for granted.”
“I love America, and I don’t want to see assassins sent by the Islamic Republic walking freely in my new homeland,” she continued.
“You might find this hard to believe — but for simply posting videos of myself showing my hair and encouraging women in Iran to do the same, the regime sent a man with an AK-47 to my house in Brooklyn to kill me.”
“Today, that man is testifying. Two other agents of the regime pleaded not guilty denying their mission to silence me forever. As a witness, I’m not allowed in the courtroom, so I’m sitting outside, reliving the moment when that man stood with a loaded gun in front of my home.”
With Post wires
