Murder-for-hire plot to assassinate Iranian dissident in NYC is lie cooked up by pizza delivery hitman, lawyer claims

Two eastern European gangsters never plotted to murder exiled Iranian-American activist Masih Alinejad, despite claims to the contrary by a bumbling “pizza delivery hitman,” the suspect’s defense lawyer claimed in her closing argument Wednesday.Polad Omarov and Rafat Amirov were only trying to “scam” Iranian officials out of $500,000 in a bizarre scheme that involved sending would-be assassin Khalid Mehdiyev outside Alinejad’s Brooklyn home with instructions not to kill her, attorney Elena Fast claimed.“This is ridiculous! There was no murder plot,” Fast said in her closing statement at the Manhattan trial of Omarov and Amirov, who are charged with ordering the brazen hit on Alinejad in July 2022.Mehdiyev botched the high-stakes hit in spectacular fashion — including by ordering food to his car outside her home, ambling around maskless on her porch and then running a stop sign while fleeing the scene, leading to his arrest, the feds say.Omarov’s lawyer claimed that the staggering slipups from Mehdiyev — who said he had been selling pizzas in the Bronx before his arrest — were evidence that his handlers never wanted to kill Alinejad at all.“This was a scam,” Fast told jurors.“There was no James Bond 007.

They hired a clown as the hit man.”Among the evidence the feds have revealed during the week-and-a-half-long trial are photos of gaudy cake gifts that Omarov received touting his place in a criminal organization called the Thieves-in-Law.One treat Omarov received was topped with a gold crown and an edible handgun, evidence shows.Fast started her closing statements by inviting the jury to imagine they were watching a TV show called “The Pizza Delivery Hitman.”The Russia-born attorney then put on an eastern European accent and acted out a skit for jurors in which she pretended to take orders for both pizzas and murders at Peppino’s, the White Plains Road pizza shop where Mehdiyev worked before he was busted.Mehdivev was both the ...