Four Iranians charged with planning to kidnap journalist in New York

Published on : 07/14/2021 – 03:02

The American justice announced Tuesday July 13 to have indicted four “Iranian intelligence agents” for having planned the kidnapping of an American reporter of Iranian origin in the United States.

The four men had sought since “June 2020” to kidnap “an author and journalist who highlighted human rights violations committed by the Iranian government,” the US Department of Justice said in a report. communicated. They had planned “to take their victim by force to Iran, where (his) fate would have been at best uncertain,” said prosecutor Audrey Strauss.

The suspects “used the services of private investigators to monitor, photograph and film” the victim and his relatives, “on several occasions” between 2020 and 2021, according to the ministry.

Agents had been looking for a way to transport the reporter out of the United States, one of them inquiring about speedboats offering “autonomous marine evacuation” from New York, and a boat trip between New York. and Venezuela, a country which maintains “friendly relations with Iran”.

Feminist

Masih Alinejad is a feminist activist behind the anti-veiling movement in Iran, a country she has since left. From the United States, where she has settled, she criticizes the Iranian regime and its policies, and has received the support of stars such as Meryl Streep, whom she had joined on stage at a conference on human rights. women, in 2016.

“In the eyes of the Iranian regime, any woman who fights for her fundamental rights is a criminal,” she said last April in a video message to the Swedish Parliament.

Not being named in the press release, she seemed to confirm to be the target of this project, responding in particular “thank you” to a tweet referring to the charges announced.

Other victims targeted

This network, discovered by the FBI, also targeted other victims living in particular “in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates”, against whom they had tried to deploy the same means of surveillance, according to the prosecutors.

The four agents are Alireza Shavaroghi Farahani, Mahmoud Khazein, Kiya Sadeghi and Omid Noori. A fifth Iranian residing in California, Niloufar Bahadorifar, is suspected of having participated in the financing of this project.

“Every person in the United States must be free from all harassment, threats and physical harm from foreign powers,” said prosecutor Mark Lesko.

Iran is considered one of the most repressive countries for journalists, and exercises “relentless” control of information according to the NGO Reporters Without Borders, which placed it 174th out of 180 in its ranking freedom of the press in 2021.

With AFP