Tehran: An American citizen of Iranian origin residing in California was sentenced to four years in prison for her role in the attempted kidnapping of Masih Alinejad, an Iranian activist, the US Department of Justice announced.
In December 2022, 48-year-old Niloufar Bahadorifar, was charged with many offences, including conspiracy to break US sanctions by providing Iran with material support.
On Friday, the US Attorney General for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, announced that Niloufar Bahadorifar had been sentenced to 4 years in prison for conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) by providing financial services to Iran and its government in violation of US sanctions.
“Niloufar Bahadorifar willfully violated the sanctions and provided financial support to Iranian intelligence assets, who in turn participated in a plot to kidnap an Iranian human rights activist living in the United States whom the Iranian government sought to silence,” prosecutor Damien Williams said.
According to New York Times, US court confirmed that Bahadorifar paid a private investigator who was recruited in 2020 to monitor Masih Alinejad, an activist campaigning against the veil and residing in New York.
Provided funds, access
Bahadorifar was convicted of laundering money to the United States from Iran that was used to pay private investigators to conduct surveillance on Alinejad on behalf of an alleged Iranian intelligence agent, Mahmoud Khazein.
Bahadorifar has been accused of making cash deposits of more than 476,100 dollars into accounts in the US since 2019, structuring most deposits in increments of less than 10,000 dollars to avoid detection by US financial authorities.
Bahadorifar was not accused of taking part in the kidnapping plot itself, and her lawyers argued that she was unintentionally deceptive.
On Friday, Alinejad said in a video statement on Twitter that she came face to face with Bahadurifar shortly after appearing in federal court.
“In my statement I said in the federal court, that this is beyond belief that anyone could even claim that they are unaware of the evil nature of the Islamic Republic,” said Alinejad. “The sentence today is a reminder for the US government, for Europeans, who is still trying to get a deal with the Islamic Republic because the Islamic Republic is a terrorist regime.”
Alinejad, an activist-journalist, became a US citizen in 2019. She has been an advocate for women’s rights in Iran for years and has played a prominent role in amplifying the voices of demonstrators during the most recent wave of protests, which began in September 2022.
