FBI charge four Iranians with plot to kidnap NYC journalist after she criticized human rights abuses

US charges four Iranians who plotted to kidnap an American journalist in New York and take her to Tehran – with backing of Iran government

  • Four Iranian spies have been charged with plotting to kidnap Masih Alinejad
  • Alinejad has criticized the regime in Tehran for its human rights abuses
  • She said that she had been informed of an ‘audacious’ plot to snatch her
  • The plotters, all of whom are in Iran, intended to take her to Tehran 

New York City prosecutors have charged four Iranian spies with plotting to kidnap a U.S. journalist from Brooklyn and take her to Tehran, after she criticized the regime for its human rights abuses.

Masih Alinejad, 44, a producer with Voice of America, told NBC News that she was the target of the plot. She was not named in court documents.  

‘I’ve been targeted for a number of years but this is the first time that such an audacious plot has been hatched and foiled,’ she said by email on Tuesday night.

In 2020, Alinejad wrote in The Washington Post that she learned of the Iranian regime’s attempts to kidnap her. 

‘It’s been a horrifying experience, but I can’t say that it’s been entirely unexpected,’ she wrote. 

‘The regime has tried many forms of intimidation to silence me over the years.’  

The four spies were named in court documents as Alireza Shavaroghi Farahani, Mahmoud Khazein, Kiya Sadeghi and Omid Noori.

All live in Iran.

A fifth, Niloufar Bahadorifar, is accused of providing financial support.