By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Jan 27 vlog
SDNY COURTHOUSE, March 6 - A man from Azerbaijan was arrested with an AK-47 style assault rifle surveilling the Brooklyn home of an Iranian journalist, Inner City Press exclusively reported learned on July 29, 2022,
In the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York past 5 pm that day, a detention or release proceeding was held by Magistrate Judge Sarah Cave on defendant Khalid Mehdiyev. He was heavy-set and in a black T-shirt, escorted in by two US Marshals. Inner City Press was the only media there.
On January 27, 2023, Mehdiyev's paymaster was presented, but not arraigned, again before Judge Cave. He was in a black t-shirt, repeating "Da" sullenly, detained on consent with a taxpayer-funded lawyer. Vlog here
On February 1, both Amirov and Mehdiyev were on court before District Judge Colleen McMahon.
On February 21, SDNY prosecutors announced the extradition of POLAD OMAROV.
On February 6, 2025 the new counsel for Polad Omarov moved to suppress his statements on the extradition flight.
On Saturday March 1, after Judge McMahon questioned the timing of the US Attorney's Office "Rule of Specialty" filing saying it would proceed on Counts 4 and 5 against Omarov, the Office filed an explanation. It learned a waiver would not be required from the Czech Republic's position in US v. Gupta, another case Inner City Press is covering.
On March 3, the US Attorney's Office wrote in saying that Omarov should not be able to suppress his post arrest statement by saying he does not know many of the Russian words - they say paper possessed by Omarov shows he knows Russian.
On March 4, Inner City Press went to the final pre-trial conference, about Omarov's motion to suppress, ending with Masih Alinejad, then and upcoming.
On March 6 Omarov's motion to suppress was denied, with quotes from his interview on the jet including "I just really want to see a lawyer cause I don't know your laws. But to speak that's no problem. I don't want you to think that I am hiding something."
There was discussion of whether the jury will hear that Iran hired the "Russian mob," or merely Guli vor -
more on X for Subscribers here and Substack here
The case is US v. Medhiyev, et al., 22-cr-438 (McMahon)
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