NEWYORK –
An Iranian opposition activist, who US authorities say was the target of two thwarted kidnapping or murder plots, urged a federal judge in New York on Friday to issue a verdict. heavy prison sentence for a woman who unwittingly financed one of the planned attacks.
Masih Alinejad, a former Iranian journalist, said her sense of security had been disrupted since authorities informed her in 2020 that she was being followed and pictures were taken of her. where she stayed in Brooklyn for 10 years. Since then, she has received protection from the US government and regularly moves between safe houses.
“This crime has left its mark. Every day when I go out on the street, I have to look back. … I miss the tree-lined street and the neighbors who treat me like their family,” Alinejad said. Judge Ronnie Abrams asked her to set an example by sending Niloufar Bahadorifar, 48, of Irvine, Calif., to prison for as long as possible.
Abrams did just that, announcing a four-year prison sentence after agreeing with prosecutors, who urged her to apply a sentence of 46 to 57 months behind bars. She said she wanted to prevent others from being able to assist the Iranian government in targeting individuals in the United States.
Abrams denied Bahadorifar’s attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, that his client be excused from prison on the grounds that she was also the victim of a “dark, oppressive and evil regime of terror” that had led to she was programmed to do such things. It is said that she fled Iran only to live for a time in Canada with a “violent, lunatic fundamentalist husband.”
Later, Bahadorifar spoke in court, telling Alinejad that she was “very ashamed to have participated in any attempt to harm you, even without my knowledge.”
She added: “You are a hero to all Iranians. I’m so sorry.”
Outside the courthouse, Alinejad was less than impressed.
“Even trying to use it to save yourself? I’m no hero,” she said. “My heroes are people who have been killed by the Iranian regime, and they have never played the role of a victim like her.”
Alinejad has long been a target of Iran’s theocracy after fleeing the country following the controversial 2009 presidential election and repression.
She is a prominent figure on Farsi-speaking overseas satellite channels with critical views on Iran and has worked as a contractor for the Voice of America’s Farsi network operated by the United States. sponsor since 2015. She became a US citizen in October 2019.
In December, Bahadorifar, a US citizen of Iranian descent, pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate US economic sanctions on Iran by allowing four Iranians access to the US financial system wanted to arrest. toad and silence Alinejad by taking her back to Tehran. Authorities say the Iranians used Bahadorifar as an intermediary to pay a private American investigator.
The investigator is part of a scheme by the kidnappers, working for the Iranian government, to use private investigators in 2020 and 2021 to monitor, take photos and videos of Alinejad and others in the area. her home several times, prosecutors said.
Last summer, police arrested a man armed with a loaded assault-style rifle and dozens of rounds of ammunition near her home in Brooklyn. Alinejad said a home security video captured the man outside her front door.
Prosecutors said that since 2015, Bahadorifar provided financial and other services, including access to the financial system and U.S. institutions, to numerous individuals from Iran. . Starting in 2019, she has structured cash deposits totaling at least $476,000 in more than 120 individual deposits, reaching $10,000 only twice, authorities said. blame said.
At her defense in December, Bahadorifar said she sent the money to the private investigator on behalf of a government official in Iran, a longtime family friend.
An Iranian intelligence officer and others were charged in New York in 2021 with attempting to kidnap Alinejad. Iranian officials have denied the allegation.
The private investigator, who also did not know his employer was an Iranian agent, later cooperated with the FBI and was not charged.
Assistant US Attorney Jacob Gutwillig said the case demonstrated “why sanctions violations are serious”.
After the sentence was delivered, Lichtman said as he left the court that he was very disappointed, calling the idea that Iranian terrorists would be prevented from other malicious plots “humorous” given his fate. your master.
Outside court, Alinejad said the word “safe” was a luxury for her.
“I’m not safe in America,” she said. “I can’t believe all this is happening to me. Three men are trying to kill me on American soil.”
She added: “It’s not about me. It’s about the national security of the United States of America.”
