New York prosecutors have charged four Iranian intelligence agents or informants with the planned kidnapping of a US human rights activist. They wanted to kidnap the American woman of Iranian origin, who lives in Brooklyn, and abduct her to Iran, where she was threatened with prosecution as a critic of the Iranian regime, as the Justice Department said on Tuesday (local time). In addition, they had planned to kidnap other people from the USA, France and the United Arab Emirates.
The four suspects are in Iran, it said. A fifth person who lives in California is alleged to have helped fund the venture. The Federal Police FBI thwarted the plan in time, it said. It is the right of US citizens to make use of freedom of expression and to stand up for human rights – without having to fear foreign intelligence services, said the prosecutor.
The Justice Department did not name the person who was about to be abducted. According to media reports, it was the author and activist Masih Alinejad. She spread about hers verified Twitter account also several reports and comments identifying her as the target of the planned kidnapping.