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Exiled Iranian-American activist Masih Alinejad came face-to-face Wednesday with the two gangsters who brazenly sent a bumbling hitman to her Brooklyn home to kill her — proclaiming “they couldn’t break me” before the duo were each sentenced to 25 years in federal prison.

”I’m a great woman. I’m a strong woman,” Alinejad said in Manhattan federal court, standing feet away from Rafat Amirov, 46, and Polad Omarov, 41, who were convicted in March of agreeing to pocket $500,000 in “blood money” from the barbarous theocratic regime to carry out the failed July 2022 hit.

“Justice is beautiful!” the jubilant dissident then declared on her way out of the courthouse, wearing a red leather jacket and holding a single sunflower in her hand.

“They failed. They wanted to kill me,” Alinejad said, adding she was wearing red “in defiance “because the killers wanted to see me covered in blood.”


  Alinejad, who testified at the trial, confronted her would-be killers again at Wednesday’s hearing. AP Alinejad, who testified at the trial, confronted her would-be killers again at Wednesday’s hearing. AP

“As you see I have a louder voice,” she said. “They wanted to see me dead on my porch in Brooklyn. And thanks to the law enforcement agencies I am alive. And Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader [of Iran], is humiliated.”

Omarov, originally from Iran, and Amirov, of the country of Georgia, sent would-be triggerman Khalid Mehdiyev to Alinejad’s Flatbush home with a loaded AK-47 assault rifle, jurors heard.

Both defendants were high-ranking members of a Russian mob crew known as “Thieves-in War,” according to the feds, while Mehdiyev was a lower-level henchman who revealed at trial that he was working at a Bronx pizza parlor when tapped for the wet work.

Senior US District Judge Colleen McMahon called the motley crew a “gang of thugs” before passing sentence.

“There is no doubt in my mind that this is a terrible crime that has had some terrible ramifications on some very fine people,” McMahon said.


  Amirov was a high-ranking member of a Russian mob crew, the feds said. SDNY Amirov was a high-ranking member of a Russian mob crew, the feds said. SDNY

  Omarov agreed alongside his partner-in crime to pocket $500,000 for the failed hit, jurors heard. SDNY Omarov agreed alongside his partner-in crime to pocket $500,000 for the failed hit, jurors heard. SDNY

Mehdiyev, who accepted a plea deal, testified at his former bosses’ trial that he messed up the high-stakes hit in spectacular fashion — including by ordering food to his Subaru, which bore suspiciously out-of-state license plates, as he lurked on the leafy street outside Alinejad’s home.

The aspiring assassin was busted July 28, 2022, after running a stop sign while wearing a ski mask, prompting cops to search his car and find the gun with a bullet in the chamber.

Alinejad, 49, is known for her outspoken criticism of the Iranian government and for encouraging women to defy the country’s draconian law forcing them to wear headscarves, or hijabs, or risk imprisonment.


  Alinejad, 49, is an outspoken critic of the Iranian government. REUTERS Alinejad, 49, is an outspoken critic of the Iranian government. REUTERS

  Amirov and Omarov were convicted of all charges, including murder-for-hire, conspiracy, and money laundering. REUTERS Amirov and Omarov were convicted of all charges, including murder-for-hire, conspiracy, and money laundering. REUTERS

She told the court Wednesday that she has been forced to move 21 times since fleeing Iran in 2009, and US officials say she has survived several other assassination and kidnapping attempts.

“I crossed an ocean to America to have a normal life, and I don’t have a normal life,” Alinejad said. “When I came here, my dream was to jump on a bicycle and just bike freely, and now, I cannot do that because of these criminals.”

The Manhattan federal jury took under four hours March 20 to convict Amirov and Omarov of all charges, including murder-for-hire, conspiracy, and money laundering.

Alinejad took the stand and described the chilling moment she saw her would-be killer staring straight into her eyes through the sunflower patch on her front porch the day he was arrested, leading her to believe she was merely admiring her garden.

Jurors also heard evidence of Omarov and Amirov nonchalantly discussing murdering Alinejad as a “birthday present” to their Iranian backers.

“I am the survivor of this assassination plot, and even in this room today I felt the humiliation of my life being treated as a business transaction,” she told the court.

“These guys, they barely know who I am,” she added.

Mehdiyev, who lived in Yonkers at the time of his arrest, will be sentenced at a later date.

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