Iran’s daring crime foiled in New York?

Journalist Masih Alinejad was apparently in mortal danger.

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On Tuesday, the federal prosecutor’s office in New York brought charges against four Iranian citizens. They are accused of the planned kidnapping of an unnamed journalist of Iranian origin in Brooklyn. The four people are currently in Iran. The prosecution names Alireza Shavaroghi Farahani as an intelligence agent. Another person is charged as an attendant and is believed to be living in California (Link).

However, it quickly became known that the targeted victim of the plot was the well-known regime critic Masih Alinejad. She has now confirmed the reports on Twitter and commented on CNN and other media (Link). The five allegedly planned to lure Alinejad from Brooklyn abroad and then kidnap him to Iran. Another agent involved in the plot is in the maritime business and is said to have collected information about a possible kidnapping of Alinejad in a speedboat across the Caribbean to Venezuela.

Tehran dismissed the indictment as a “Hollywood invention”. However, Alinejad is convinced of the seriousness of the intentions and said that she was threatened with death. Because Iran had already kidnapped a critical journalist abroad last year and then executed in the country (Link). The journalist left Iran in 2009 after the protests against the then President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is now a US citizen, is married and has a son. Nevertheless, she asked her husband and the boy not to worry. This is probably also because it is under FBI protection (Link).

The alleged plot seems bizarre, not least against the background of the negotiations ongoing in Vienna on a return by the USA and Iran to the international nuclear agreement with the Islamic Republic. The White House sees no reason to break off the talks in the indictment. However, these have been stuck in a dead end since the end of June (Link).

Alinejad is internationally known and was honored last year by the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy for her commitment to the service of women’s rights in Iran.

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