Prosecutors say the men helped direct a murder-for-hire scheme aimed at Masih Alinejad. The trial is expected to show Iran’s efforts to punish those who criticize it, no matter where they are.

Two members of an Eastern European criminal organization were “hired guns for the government of Iran” in a plot to assassinate an Iran-born journalist at her New York City residence three years ago, a prosecutor told a federal jury in an opening statement on Tuesday at the start of a trial for the men.

The trial of two men charged in an alleged Iranian government-sponsored murder-for-hire plot that targeted a prominent Iranian journalist and human rights activist has begun with jury selection