A Disturbing Plot Against a Human-Rights Activist
In February, during a scheduled speaking engagement at Fairfield University in Connecticut, Brooklyn-based human-rights activist Masih Alinejad became the target of a sinister plot. Two men from New York were dispatched to the campus with the intent to assassinate her, according to federal prosecutors who revealed this shocking information last week.
This incident is just one of several attempts orchestrated by the Iranian government to either kidnap or eliminate Alinejad, a prominent critic of Iran’s oppressive regime against women. In a detailed criminal complaint made public on Friday, federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York outlined a months-long surveillance operation involving the two men, who have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, along with a third individual who was providing them with instructions.
The third man, identified as Farhad Shakeri, was described by prosecutors as an Iranian operative. He reportedly confessed to federal authorities that he had previously been tasked with a plot to assassinate Donald J. Trump ahead of the upcoming presidential election. “Actors directed by the government of Iran continue to target our citizens, including President-elect Trump, on U.S. soil and abroad. This has to stop,” stated Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District.
The day after Alinejad’s event at Fairfield University, one of the men, Carlisle Rivera, received a money transfer of approximately $560, as detailed in the complaint. In the subsequent weeks and months, Rivera, aged 49, along with his associate, Jonathan Loadholt, 36, engaged in extensive surveillance of Alinejad’s residence in Brooklyn. They documented their findings by taking photographs and sending them to Shakeri, the man orchestrating the plot from afar.
In addition to the chilling assassination attempt on Alinejad, Shakeri disclosed that in September, he had been assigned by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran to devise a plan to assassinate Donald Trump. Notably, in October, he was directed to formulate a strategy to carry out this high-profile killing within a mere seven days.
