Feds charge 4 in Iran plot to kidnap activist in US, others

By DEEPTI HAJELA and LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — An Iranian intelligence officer and three members of an Iranian intelligence network have been charged in Manhattan with plotting to kidnap a prominent Iranian opposition activist and writer in exile and take her back to Tehran.

An indictment in Manhattan federal court Tuesday alleges that the plot was part of a wider plan to lure three individuals in Canada and a fifth person in the United Kingdom to Iran.

According to the indictment, all of the targeted victims had been critical of Iran.

Brooklyn-based Masih Alinejad confirmed that authorities had told her she was among the targeted victims.

Alinejad is a prominent activist who became a U.S. citizen in 2019 after fleeing Iran.