Federals charge 4 Iranians with plotting to kidnap journalist in New York City

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On Tuesday, federal authorities announced that four Iranian intelligence agents planned to kidnap a journalist from Brooklyn and smuggle her to Iran in an attempt to silence her criticism of human rights violations in the Islamic Republic.

In a series of tweets, writer and activist Masih Alinejad admitted that she was the target, telling The National, which covers the Middle East, “They plotted to kidnap me.”

Mahmoud Khazin and Ali Reza Shahourhi Farhani were charged in the alleged conspiracy, as were US attorneys SDNYKiya Sadeghi and Omid Nouri.

A source familiar with the matter confirmed that Ali Ahmadinejad was the target.

Audrey Strauss, the Manhattan attorney general, who did not name Alingad by name, said she would have faced an “uncertain at best” fate if the plan had not been thwarted by the FBI.

As FBI Assistant Director William F. Sweeney Jr. said, “This is not a far-fetched movie plot.”

We alleged that an Iranian government-backed group plotted to kidnap a US-based journalist here on our soil and forcibly return her to Iran. “Not in our guard,” he said.

Assistant FBI Director William F. Sweeney, Jr. warned that the threat was real and not a “far-fetched movie plot.” Photo by Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

The ring, led by Iranian intelligence official Alireza Shafarouqi Farahani, is alleged to have begun plotting to kidnap Ali Ahmadinejad inside the United States since at least June 2020.

Earlier, the Iranian authorities said that in 2018 Iranian government officials tried in vain to persuade her relatives in Iran to invite her to a third country where she would be arrested or detained and then imprisoned in Iran.

Iranian intelligence agents wanted to prevent Alinejad from reporting on human rights abuses in Iran. Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images

The evidence in the case allegedly includes a photo of Alingad stored on an electronic device used by Farahani.

Authorities said that photo showed her with two other people arrested by Iranian intelligence, one of whom was later executed while the other is imprisoned in Iran.

“Gradually the gathering is getting bigger… will you come or should we come to you?” The caption is allegedly in Persian.

Farahani and other intelligence men — Mahmoud Khazen, Kia Sadeghi and Amid Nouri — were charged in a Manhattan federal court indictment with offenses including conspiracy to kidnap, conspiracy to sanction violations, conspiracy to bank fraud and raqi.

Officials said the four defendants are in Iran and remain at large.

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