Iran-backed plots to kidnap or kill exile critic Masih Alinejad in the United States, as charged by U.S. prosecutors
U.S. prosecutors said Iranian agents plotted to kidnap journalist Masih Alinejad (@alinejadmasih) in New York in 2021, and later cases involved an armed man outside her home and a paid assassination attempt. Two men were convicted in 2025. Rights groups place such plots in a wider pattern of transnational repression under the system Khamenei leads.
Editorial timeline of public reporting, not a legal finding.
- U.S. charges four in plot to kidnap Alinejad - Reuters reported that the U.S. Justice Department charged four Iranian nationals with plotting to kidnap Masih Alinejad (@alinejadmasih) in New York and take her to Iran. Alinejad is a prominent critic of compulsory hijab and of Khamenei. Inside Iran's plot to kidnap an American journalist
- Armed man arrested outside Alinejad's New York home - Reuters reported that a man with an assault rifle was arrested outside Alinejad's Brooklyn home, in what authorities linked to Iran-related efforts targeting her. Man arrested with rifle outside New York home of Iranian-American journalist
- New U.S. charges over Iran-backed assassination effort - Reuters reported that U.S. prosecutors charged three people in an Iran-backed effort to assassinate Alinejad and said the Revolutionary Guards had paid for the plot. U.S. charges three in Iran-backed effort to assassinate journalist
- Two convicted in U.S. over Iran-backed plot to kill Alinejad - Reuters reported that two men were convicted in the United States over an Iran-backed plot to kill Alinejad. She said the aim was to silence critics abroad. Two convicted in US of Iran-backed plot to kill journalist