A California woman has been sentenced to four years in prison for crimes related to a failed plot to kidnap VOA Persian host Masih Alinejad.
A federal court on Friday handed down the sentence to Niloufar Bahadorifar, a U.S. citizen of Iranian descent, for helping fund an attempt to kidnap Iran critic and journalist Alinejad, who lives in exile in the United States.
Bahadorifar pleaded guilty in December to conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
The judge said by sentencing Bahadorifar to such a lengthy term, the court wanted to send a strong message to deter others who might aid Tehran in targeting critics in the U.S.
“Niloufar Bahadorifar willfully violated sanctions and knowingly provided financial support to Iranian intelligence assets, who in turn were engaged in a plot to kidnap an Iranian human rights activist living in the United States whom the Iranian Government has sought to silence for years,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York.
Alinejad urged Judge Ronnie Abrams to set an example by sending Bahadorifar to prison for as long as possible.
“This crime left its mark. Every day when I go out in the street, I have to look over my shoulders,” Alinejad told the judge.
Provided funds, access
Bahadorifar was first charged in 2021 along with four Iranian nationals. In December, Bahadorifar pleaded guilty, saying she had sent funds to a private investigator on behalf of a government official in Iran who was a longtime family friend.
The private investigator, who also was unaware his employers were Iranian agents, cooperated with the FBI and was not charged.
Since 2015, Bahadorifar had provided financial and other services, including access to the U.S. financial system and institutions, to individuals from Iran, prosecutors said. Beginning in 2019, she structured cash deposits totaling at least $476,000 in more than 120 individual deposits, topping $10,000 only twice, authorities said.
Bahadorifar wasn’t charged with participating in the kidnapping plot itself and the U.S. government isn’t alleging she knew about it or “participated in it,” according to the court judgment. But the government does allege she was “far from an unwitting participant.”
The other defendants, still in Iran, were charged with conspiracies related to kidnapping, sanctions violations, bank and wire fraud and money laundering. The Iranian officials have denied the charges.
'I'm not safe in America'
Since the kidnapping attempt, Alinejad has received U.S. government protection and moved frequently between safe houses. “I miss my tree-lined street and my neighbors who treated me as one of their own,” she said.
“I’m not safe in America,” Alinejad said outside court Friday. “I cannot believe that this all happened to me. Three men were trying to kill me on U.S. soil.”
In July 2022, police arrested a man on weapons charges after he was caught on security cameras loitering outside Alinejad’s New York home.
When investigators searched his car, they found a loaded AK-47-style assault rifle in a suitcase in the back seat.
Iran is among the most censored countries in the world. Since protests began in September 2022, more than 90 journalists, including many women, have been detained for their coverage, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Dozens remain in custody.
The U.S. passed a bill named after Alinejad to impose sanctions on those who act on Tehran’s behalf to surveil and harass its critics.
The bill’s co-sponsor, Maryland Senator Ben Cardin, said in a statement to VOA earlier this year that Alinejad’s case “demonstrated the extremes the Iranian government is willing to pursue to silence outspoken individuals.”
“This act puts into place the appropriate consequences for all that attempt to limit the ability of Iranian citizens to exercise free speech, and demonstrates the United States’ commitment to supporting free speech for the people of Iran,” said Cardin, who sponsored the bill with Pennsylvania’s Senator Pat Toomey.
Alinejad in 2023 was named one of Time Magazine’s women of the year for her work promoting women’s rights in Iran.
She has refused to let the threats deter her, telling VOA previously, “I’m simply doing my job … Simply being a journalist is a crime in the eyes of the Islamic Republic.”
Some information in this report came from AP.
