HRF Condemns Second Assassination Plot Against Iranian Activist Masih Alinejad

NEW YORK (Nov. 8, 2024) — The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) condemns the assassination plot, made public today by the U.S. Department of Justice, against Iranian journalist, women’s rights activist, and former Oslo Freedom Forum speaker Masih Alinejad. This is the third attempt on her life in the last three years orchestrated by the Iranian regime.

“It is unfathomable that Iran’s dictatorial regime has once again managed to advance an assassination plot on U.S. soil. It is embarrassing for the Biden administration that this has happened again,” HRF CEO Thor Halvorssen said. “When the U.S. government fails to take decisive action and make clear to the Iranian regime that their behavior has consequences, they feel emboldened to continue targeting Masih, a leading voice in the Iranian diaspora. This cycle of attempted assassination plots will only end when the U.S. confronts the Iranian regime with firm action that lets them know that this will not be tolerated.”

According to a criminal complaint released by the U.S. Department of Justice, three individuals — Farhad Shakeri, Carlisle Rivera, and Jonathon Loadholt — were charged on November 8, 2024, in connection with a murder plot directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IGRC). Shakeri, who was previously “assigned” to kill president-elect Donald Trump, has now been directed to kill Alinejad. The charges revealed that Shakeri, who resides in Tehran, instructed Rivera and Loadholt to locate, surveil, and ultimately murder individuals within the United States, including Alinejad, in exchange for large cash payments. Earlier this year, she was forced to cancel a speaking engagement at an American University after the FBI informed her of the latest assassination attempt. Officials explained that the plot reflects “Iran’s brazen attempts to target U.S. citizens” and “dissidents who criticize the regime in Tehran.”

“This is shocking, this is the third attempt against me […] I left Iran and came to America to practice my freedom of speech and now I have to watch over my shoulder every single day when I go out. This is a threat not only against me; it is a threat against the national security of the United States of America,” said Alinejad to HRF from a safe house. “All I do is give a voice to the brave women who are in Iran living under the brutality of the Iranian regime. They send me videos and messages and I amplify their voices. The Iranian regime knows the power of these women, and they are threatened by people hearing about the horrors they are committing. But what they do not realize is that they may succeed in killing me, but they will never succeed in extinguishing the revolution that has been ongoing since Mahsa Amini’s murder in September 2022. We will not rest until the Iranian regime is dismantled.”

The Iranian regime first attempted to harm Alinejad through a kidnapping plot in 2021, which was disclosed by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in an unsealed indictment against four Iranian operatives. Their elaborate plot was to capture Alinejad in the U.S., move her to Venezuela — given the Maduro regime’s ties with Tehran — and forcibly send her to Iran.

A year later, the Iranian regime targeted Alinejad again, this time with an assassination attempt. Over two days, U.S. law enforcement observed Khalid Mehdiyez conducting surveillance outside of Alinejad’s Brooklyn home. Stationed in a gray SUV, he spent hours watching her house, ordering food to his car, approaching her windows, and even attempting to open her front door. On July 29, 2022, the police pulled Mehdiyez over for a traffic violation and discovered he was driving without a license. A subsequent search revealed an AK-47, multiple magazines of ammunition, and two additional license plates in the car. On October 22, 2024, the U.S. charged Ruhollah Bazghandi, a senior official in the IRGC, along with three other men, in connection with this plot.

The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies. 

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