Feds: Iran plotted to kidnap dissident journalist in Brooklyn

NEW YORK — An Iranian intelligence officer and a network of accomplices tried to kidnap a prominent U.S. journalist and author from her Brooklyn home to silence her criticism of the Iranian regime, federal prosecutors allege.

Prosecutors allege a disturbing plot by the Iranian government aimed to grab activist Masih Alinejad and lock her up in an Iranian prison. Their plans included spying on her home for months and researching the best route to the Brooklyn waterfront — where they hoped to shove her in a militarystyle speedboat headed for Venezuela.

“I was in three safe houses, and they were following me,” Alinejad, 44, told the Daily News. “I think I’m living in a movie. I’ve cooperated with the FBI for the last eight months.”

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan indicted Alireza Shavaroghi Farahani, 50, an Iranian intelligence official who resides in Iran, and four accomplices, in the kidnapping scheme.

Only one has been arrested so far — Niloufar Bahadorifar, 46, of California. Farahani and three others, Mahmoud Khazein, 42, Kiya Sadeghi, 35, and Omid Noori, 45, remain at large.

The indictment doesn’t name Alinejad, but she spoke out at length about the plot, and posts on her Twitter page make it clear she was the intended target.

Alinejad is known for her fierce activism against the law requiring women in Iran to wear a hijab, and in 2019, she sued the Iranian government in federal court, accusing it of harassing her family and imprisoning her brother. She fled Iran in 2009, and became a U.S. citizen in 2019.

“I have 5 million followers on my Instagram... I’m giving a platform to people inside, challenging the compulsory hijab, and challenging the religious dictatorship,” she told The News. “All the years and years they called America the great Satan, the biggest enemy. But they’re scared of their own people. That’s why they sent officers from the intelligence service to Brooklyn to kidnap me.”

She said she was horrified by the news last year that the Iranian government had executed Ruhollah Zam, a dissident journalist living in France. Federal prosecutors said he was lured by Iranian intelligence services to leave France in October 2019, and captured him.