‘They Wanted Her Dead, Not in The Witness Box’: Prosecutors Make Case That Iran Set Up Botched Brooklyn Hit Against Iranian- American Woman
Over the course of the trial, prosecutors have been making the case that Iran orchestrated and paid for the failed hit.
Closing arguments were held at the trial of two men, accused of having been hired by people tied to the Iranian government to murder the Iranian-American journalist and human rights activist, Masih Alinejad, at her home in New York City. Defense attorneys did not dispute that the Iranians were allegedly targeting the journalist, but fiercely disagreed that their clients were involved in the plot. One defense lawyer even acted out the testimony of a key witness, like a scene from a movie, to convince the jury that the murder-conspiracy is fabricated fiction.
“The government of Iran put a $500,000 bounty on her head,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Lockard told the jury on Thursday at a federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan. He was speaking about Ms. Alinejad, who was born and raised in Iran, but fled Iran for America in 2009 after the country’s disputed presidential election. She became an American citizen in 2019.
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