The story of the Iranian journalist who was to be kidnapped in Brooklyn and taken to Venezuela by secret agents from Tehran

Iranian intelligence agents conspired to kidnap an Iranian-American journalist living in Brooklyn and take him to the land of Middle East, possibly by a daring maritime evacuation, the Department of Justice in an indictment released Tuesday.

Four Iranians have been indicted by a federal court in Manhattan plot to kidnap Always Alinejad, journalist in exile and activist for women’s rights who has long criticized the regime of Tehran. Alinejad was not identified by prosecutors, but confirmed in Twitter That was the goal.

“I am grateful to the FBI for foiling the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence plot to kidnap me. This plot was orchestrated under the command of Rouhani“He wrote on Tuesday, referring to the outgoing president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani.

Several Iranian dissidents in exile recently disappeared under mysterious circumstancesEven if a kidnapping on American soil would have been particularly flagrant. In his Tweeter, Alinejad he referred Ruhollah Zam, a journalist who lived in exile in France but what was taken for Iraq in 2019; later he was executed. He also referred to the case of Jamshid Sharmahd, a member of a militant Iranian opposition group based in California who was kidnapped last year while traveling abroad and is now in an Iranian prison.

One of the four accused had an electronic device containing a composite graphic showing an image of Alinejad along with the other two dissidents, prosecutors wrote in their indictment. They said that a legend on the map, in Farsi, read: “Little by little the meeting grows … are you coming, or should we go and get you?”.

“This is not an implausible movie plot. We allege that a group, backed by the Iranian government, conspired to kidnap a US-based journalist here on our soil and forcibly return her to Iran.»Declared Tuesday the deputy director of the FBI, William F. Sweeney Jr: “Not in our custody”.

Alinejad, longtime critic of the theocratic government of Tehran, received a human rights award in Geneva in 2015 for the creation of a Facebook in which he invited the women of Iran, where he hijab is mandatory, to post pictures of themselves without the scarf. According to Associated press, is a leading figure in Farsi satellite channels abroad, who takes a critical look at Iran.

U.S. officials also alleged that prior to the kidnapping plan, Tehran tried to financially encourage relatives of Alinejad, resides in Iran, so that they go to a place where it would be easier to kidnap and imprison her. His relatives did not accept the offer.

The permanent mission of Iran before the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

If the plot had succeeded, the fate of Alinejad would have been “At best uncertain”, He said Audrey strauss, attorney of the Southern District of New York.

“One of this country’s most precious freedoms is the right to speak out without fear of reprisal from the government.“, He added Strauss. “An American citizen living in the United States must be able to defend human rights without being the target of foreign intelligence operations.”.

The four defendants all live Iranprosecutors said, identifying one of them, Alireza Shavaroghi Farahani, as Iranian intelligence official and the other three as “Iranian intelligence resources. “A fifth defendant, Niloufar Bahadorifar, accused of supporting the alleged plot but not participating in the kidnapping plot, was arrested in California.

It was not clear whether the four Iranians accused of the kidnapping plot had legal representation in the United States.; a lawyer for the fifth respondent did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The four defendants may never see inside a US court. Washington does not maintain diplomatic relations with Tehran, and could not be contacted immediately Department of Justice to comment on any plans to extradite the Iranian defendants.

In the middle of last year, Farahani and his network used private investigators to monitor the home of Alinejad at Brooklyn and other members of his family, according to the indictment. They allegedly falsified their identity to investigators and used laundered money to pay them.

The defendants also sought ways to direct Alinejad secretly to Iran, including finding travel routes from your apartment to a maritime district in Brooklyn. One of the officers investigated a service that offered “Military-style speedboats for a sea evacuation on your own out of Manhattan“Said the prosecutors, and the sea voyages of new York a Venezuela, a country that maintains friendly relations with the regime of Iran.

In a video that Alinejad published Tuesday in Twitter, appears seated near the window of an apartment with a parked police car, the lights on, in the street below.

“The police have been hanging around my house for two weeks … to protect me“, dice Alinejad, according to the English subtitles that accompany the video. Laughing nervously as he speaks, he adds: “I’m not used to being protected by the police. Every time I see them I guess it’s to stop me”.

(C) The Washington Post.-

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