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'Not some far-fetched movie plot': 4 Iranians accused of plotting to kidnap Masih Alinejad in Brooklyn

John Bacon, USA TODAY
·2 min read
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A Brooklyn author and Iranian dissident who was the apparent target of an Iranian kidnapping plot says she initially expressed disbelief when the FBI told her of the plan eight months ago.

"I jokingly responded that I am used to receiving death threats daily," Masih Alinejad said in a video posted on Twitter late Tuesday.

But she said she grew serious after FBI agents showed her videos and photos taken by the conspirators of her and her family. And she said she appreciates the police protection stationed outside her home. She blames Iranian President Hassan Rouhani for the plot.

"We have been scared of the Islamic regime for a lifetime, but now the Islamic regime is scared of me," said Alinejad, who came to the U.S. more than a decade ago.

Four people charged with kidnap conspiracy – Alireza Shavaroghi Farahani, Mahmoud Khazein, Kiya Sadeghi and Omid Noori – live in Iran and remain at large, prosecutors said in court papers released Tuesday. A fifth defendant, Niloufar Bahadorifar, was accused of financially supporting the plot but not participating in the kidnapping conspiracy. A U.S. resident, she was arrested in California this month and is free on bail, prosecutors said.

“This is not some far-fetched movie plot," FBI Assistant Director William Sweeney Jr. said. "We allege a group, backed by the Iranian government, conspired to kidnap a U.S.-based journalist here on our soil and forcibly return her to Iran. Not on our watch."

US military airstrikes target militias backed by Iran in Syria, Iraq

Documents released Tuesday refer to Alinejad as "Victim 1." The indictment says the defendants monitored and planned to kidnap a "U.S. citizen of Iranian origin" who has criticized the regime’s autocracy. Shavaroghi Farahani, 50, is described as an Iranian intelligence official and the three other defendants as Iranian intelligence "assets.”

The plan was to "forcibly take their intended victim to Iran, where the victim’s fate would have been uncertain at best," U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said in a statement.

The indictment claims the Iranian government had tried to pay Alinejad's relatives in Iran to invite her to travel to a third country, apparently for the purpose of having her seized and taken to Iran to face prison. Her relatives refused, the indictment said.

Ebrahim Raisi, Iran's hard-line president-elect, says he won't meet President Biden

U.S.-Iranian relations, icy for years, have grown worse in recent days. The U.S. military launched airstrikes against Iranian-backed militias in Syria in retaliation for drone attacks, the Pentagon announced Sunday evening. The strikes targeted sites used to launch drone attacks on U.S. personnel and facilities in Iraq, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a statement.

Iranian state media made no mention of the kidnapping case.

"A U.S. citizen living in the United States must be able to advocate for human rights without being targeted by foreign intelligence operatives," Strauss said in a statement. "Thanks to the FBI’s exposure of their alleged scheme, these defendants have failed to silence criticism by forcible abduction.”

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Jan. 7, 2021, in Tehran, Iran.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Jan. 7, 2021, in Tehran, Iran.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Masih Alinejad kidnapping plot: 4 Iranians charged with conspiracy

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