The Iranian government wanted to kidnap and kill dissident journalist Masih Alinejad for shining a light on the regime’s torturous oppression of women, a Manhattan jury heard in opening statements

A prosecutor has told jurors that two defendants were hired guns for the government of Iran in a plot to assassinate an Iran-born journalist at her Brooklyn residence three years ago.

Prosecutors say figures in Tehran hired two men to kill Masih Alinejad, a journalist who had criticized Iran’s head scarf laws.

Prosecutors say that Iranian officials commissioned two purported Russian gang members to kill journalist and Iranian exile Masih Alinejad.