Masih Alinejad, an award-winning presenter for Voice of America’s Persian Service and a fierce critic of Iran’s policies on women’s rights, told The National that she was the intended victim: “They had plotted to kidnap me.” An unidentified law enforcement officer told NBC New York that Alinejad was the target. Alireza Farahani, 50, Mahmoud Khazein, 42, Kiya Sadeghi, 35, and Omid Noori, 45, are charged with conspiracy to kidnap, conspiracy to violate the sanctions against Iran, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and conspiracy to launder money.
Niloufar Bahadorifar, 46, is charged with conspiracy to violate sanctions, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, structuring fraudulent deposits, and conspiracy to launder money. Since at least approximately 2019, the Government of Iran has allegedly lured several expatriate Iranian dissidents to locations where they were arrested or kidnapped and sent to Iran for imprisonment and execution.
