Who is Masih Alinejad, target of an alleged Iranian kidnapping plot?
Prosecutors say the four Iranian defendants plotted to forcibly take the Brooklyn-based author and activist to Iran where her "fate would have been uncertain at best.”
Masih Alinejad, a prominent Iranian-American author and women’s rights activist living in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, confirmed on Tuesday that she was the target of an alleged Iranian kidnapping plot revealed by US federal prosecutors.
Prosecutors in a Manhattan federal court have charged four Iranian nationals with conspiracy to kidnap Alinejad and forcibly take her to Iran “where the victim’s fate would have been uncertain at best.”
The unsealed indictment identified Alinejad only as Victim-1, but she confirmed on late Tuesday that she was the target. She told Al-Monitor in a statement that eight months ago she was contacted by the FBI and warned of a plot against her.
"I receive daily death threats and have come immune to online threats and insults," she said. "However, this time it was different. The agents of the Islamic Republic had employed the services of a private investigator to photograph and videotape me and my family. I was under surveillance for many months."
