IRANIAN OFFICIALS INDICTED IN PLOT TO KIDNAP U.S. JOURNALIST
" Manhattan U.S. Attorney Unseals Indictment Against Iranian Intelligence Officer & Members Of Iranian Intelligence Network In Plot To Kidnap U.S. Journalist."
July 14, 2021 By Englebrook Independent News,
NEW YORK, NY.- A 43-page indictment unsealed on Tuesday, July 13, 2021 details the plan by Iranian Intelligence Official and his three assets to track a Brooklyn based journalist with the goal of bringing her back to Iran. The court records also include information on a fifth person, a woman based in the United States, who Prosecutors say help fund the covert operation.
The indictment in Manhattan Federal Court does not name the intended victim, who is described as a journalist and Human Rights Advocate. However, The New York Times reports that the journalist and author Masih Alinejad confirmed in an interview that she was the intended target. Ms. Alinejad lives in Brooklyn, New York and has family living in Iran.
Masih Alinejad, who is a U.S. citizen, is a long time critic of the Iranian Government. She had been a journalist in her native Iran for several years until she fled the country in 2009 following Presidential Elections and a Government crackdown.
She has continued to work as a journalist with her Voice America Persian show in The United States. Alinejad also organizes " White Wednesday" and "My Stealth Freedom" campaigns where women film themselves without head coverings, or hijabs, in public in Iran in a challenge to the Nation's Government.
Alinejad shared on Twitter that she was grateful to the FBI for foiling The Islamic Republic of Iran's Intelligence Ministry's plot to kidnap me. The plot was orchestrated under Hassan Rouhani Iran's President.
Alinejad wrote in August 2020 that she had recently learned the Iranian Government had called for her to abducted.
" The regime's cruel treatment of women remains one of it's biggest weakness, and may focus on related injustices explains why it remains so persistent in targeting me," Alinejad wrote in an opinion piece in the Washington Post.
Intelligence Official, Alireza Shahvarough Farahani, 50, directs a network that has targeted victims in the U.S., France and the United Arab Emirates, Prosecutors said. They claim the plot is part of a scheme by The Republic of Iran to target dissidents who oppose the regime's violation of human rights, suppression of democratic participation and freedom of expression and corruption.
Farahani and his three members of his intelligence network are charged with Kidnapping Conspiracy, Money Laundering Conspiracy, Sanction Violations Conspiracy and Wire Fraud Conspiracy.
Charged with Farahani in the Kidnapping Conspiracy are Mahmoud Khazein, 42, Kiya Sadeghi, 35, and Omid Noori, 45. All four are based in Iran and remain outside U.S. custody, according to Prosecutors. The charges against them carry a maximum of life in prison.
A California resident, Niloufar "Nellie" Bahadorifar, 46, is accused of providing financial services to the group.
The case is U.S. v Farahani, 21-cr-00430, U.S. District Court Southern District of New York ( Manhattan).
FILED UNDER JULY 14, 2021 NATIONAL, POLITICS, GLOBAL: