MANHATTAN (CN) - A federal jury on Thursday convicted Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, two purported members of the Russian mob, on all charges related to the 2022 assassination attempt on Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad.

Alinejad is a journalist and activist who fled Iran for the United States in 2009. Since then, she's amassed a large social media presence for her outspoken criticism of Iran's treatment of women. That activism deemed her an "enemy of the Iranian state," according to federal prosecutors, and led to the nation's government "desperately" wanting her killed.

"The government of Iran has targeted her for over a decade," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacob Gutwillig said at the trial's opening on March 11.

Amirov and Omarov were "hired guns for the government of Iran," the prosecutor said, claiming that the Iranian government offered the duo $500,000 for the hit. To carry out the plot, Gutwillig said they tapped fellow mobster Khalid Mehdiyev, an Azerbaijani who lived in Yonkers, New York, about a two-hour drive from Alinejad's home in Brooklyn.

Mehdiyev testified against the defendants in the weeklong trial as the government's key witness. The would-be hitman told jurors that Omarov tasked him with the killing after Amirov got the gig from an Iranian government official. Mehdiyev was promised a chunk of the bounty, which, as he understood it, came from Iran.

But Mehdiyev said he botched the assassination when he got arrested on July 29, 2022. NYPD officers found an AK-47, 66 rounds of ammunition, and a ski mask in his car and charged him with attempted murder.

Alinejad testified that she came across Mehdiyev before he was arrested - the "gigantic" would-be hitman appeared to be shooting videos in her garden.

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

Mehdiyev testified that he stalked Alinejad for roughly a week before his arrest. During that time, he said he sent photos and videos of Alinejad's home to Omarov. And WhatsApp messages appeared to show that Omarov sent Mehdiyev's surveillance clips to Amirov - though Amirov's lawyer argued there was no way to prove his client was actually on the receiving end of those messages despite the WhatsApp account belonging to Amirov.

Throughout the trial, defense attorneys attacked Mehdiyev's credibility by pointing to his life of crime; Mehdiyev admitted in his testimony that he was behind numerous stabbings, arsons and extortions.

Michael Perkins, an attorney for Omarov, called Mehdiyev "a witness you wouldn't buy a used car from."

Alinejad spearheaded "My Stealthy Freedom" in 2014, an online campaign encouraging Iranian women to share videos of themselves defying the country's mandatory head covering law.

Source: Courthouse News Service