Man sentenced to 15 years for assassination plot against Iranian American journalist

NEW YORK– A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a would-be man to up to 15 years in prison for plotting to kill an Iranian-American writer on behalf of Tehran, after hearing the targeted woman describe the multiple assassination attempts as threats against all Americans.

Judge Lewis J. Liman said Carlisle Rivera’s written conversations as he plotted to kill journalist and human rights activist Masih Alinejad in Brooklyn in 2024 were “chilling” and that he had inflicted “great harm” on her and her husband.

Speaking in court, the couple described how assassination plots forced them to limit their interactions with their children, as they frequently changed residences and dodged threats from a relentless Iran.

“I’m just a woman,” Alinejad said. “My weapon is my voice. My weapon is my social media.”

She urged the judge to give Rivera the maximum sentence to send a message to anyone “targeting American citizens on American soil” and to “protect unarmed people like me who are currently facing a massacre in my country.”

The Iranians, Alinejad said, “are facing guns and bullets…to protect global security,” including that of the Americans.

Before the sentence was announced, Rivera, 51, told the judge: “I am deeply sorry for my actions. »

Outside the federal courthouse in Manhattan, Alinejad said the United States must be careful not to let indiscriminate killings in Iran spill over into the United States. As she spoke, she held up a computer tablet and showed reporters video clips of body bags of some of the thousands of Iranians killed in recent protests.

Alinejad said she hoped President Donald Trump would go after Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as he did against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who was arrested in a U.S. military raid in January and charged with drug trafficking in New York. He pleaded not guilty.

“I call on President Trump. Take action. Eliminating terrorists is not a tragedy. It is a sign of justice,” Alinejad said. She added, however, that she did not want Iran to be bombed, but simply for its leaders to withdraw.

She noted that U.S. authorities have said Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were responsible not only for several plots against her life, but also for a plot against Trump.

Alinejad left Iran in 2009 following the disputed presidential election and moved to the United States, where she launched online campaigns to encourage Iranian women to pose for photos and videos showing their hair, in defiance of a religious rule requiring the wearing of headscarves.

An author and contributor to Voice of America and CBS News, Alinejad became a citizen in 2019. She has traveled the world speaking to women and encouraging others to join her movement for free speech for women, particularly those in Iran.

Last year, she testified at the trial of two men accused of plotting to kidnap her from her Brooklyn home and kill her in 2022. A prosecutor said Iran had put a $500,000 price on her head. The defendants, both from Azerbaijan, were found guilty and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

In November 2024, the Justice Department accused Tehran of authorizing a murder plot against Trump days before his re-election. A spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry reportedly denied the allegation. The person who tried to hire hitmen to go after Trump also masterminded the plot against Alinejad, authorities said.

Intelligence officials said Iran opposed Trump’s re-election. The first Trump administration ended a nuclear deal with Iran, reimposed sanctions and ordered the assassination of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, an act that prompted Iranian leaders to vow revenge.

In court Wednesday, a prosecutor said Rivera was supposed to monitor Alinejad’s scheduled appearance in February 2024 at Fairfield University in Connecticut, an event that was canceled. Afterward, according to court documents, Rivera tried for months to monitor Alinejad at a Brooklyn home where she no longer lived.

During a break in the proceedings, Alinejad approached Rivera’s fiancée, who sobbed as she hugged Alinejad, telling her: “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

Outside the courthouse, Alinejad said she told the woman: “I said, ‘I’m fighting for you, I’m fighting for all Americans… when I asked President Trump to try to stop the killers.’ »