Would-be killer of Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad sentenced to 15 years in prison

Farhad Shakeri, an Iranian operative, hired Carlisle Rivera as part of a murder-for-hire plot to assassinate Iranian dissidents, according to prosecutors. Masih Alinejad was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Wednesday.

Alinejad was saved from three conspiracies by Iran’s regime to kill or kidnap him. At his sentencing hearing in federal court in Manhattan, he confronted Rivera.

“Now I’m going to face the murderer, my would-be murderer,” Alinejad, an activist and critic of women’s oppression in Iran, said before the sentencing. “But in my view the main killer is the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps).”

Prosecutors stated that the regime “tasked Shakeri with directing a network of criminal associates in furtherance of Iranian assassination plots against its targets.” Prosecutors alleged that Shakeri gave instructions to two men in New York, Rivera and Jonathan Loadholt, to murder Alinejad in exchange for $100,000. Shakeri told federal authorities that the IRGC had also tasked him with arranging to kill President Donald Trump before the 2024 election.

I have received videos from the Iranians.

Alinejad said, “The IRGC, the Revolutionary Guards, is behind the assassination plot. The same IRGC is currently directing the genocide in Iran. “I have received videos by the Iranians that show the IRGC using AK-47 military weapons to kill people. The same IRGC paid the killers to buy AK-47s to end my life.”

Prosecutors stressed the seriousness of the conspiracy perpetrated by the IRGC, which they said was “responsible for numerous conspiracies here and around the world.” He said its aim was to “kill the voices of those inside Iran who depend on people like Masih Alinejad to voice their hopes.”

An assassination attempt on Alinejad was scheduled to take place in February 2024 at Fairfield University in Connecticut, where she was scheduled to give a speaking engagement. The plot was foiled after months of surveillance. Rivera and Loadholt were arrested in November 2024 and pleaded guilty before the case went to trial.

The event was the second time Alinejad had to face someone who was plotting to assassinate him in the last year. Two men, who prosecutors said were members of a Russian mob hired by Iran, received 25-year prison sentences in October. An attempt was made to kill Alinejad in her Brooklyn home.

Alinejad burst into tears as she entered the courtroom on Wednesday. During an emotional sentencing, she said the Iranian government wanted to silence her.

“I had to face that because I live with fear,” Alinejad said, looking directly at Rivera. But she told the judge that what she wanted was to testify against the people who hired the killer, the Revolutionary Guards. “My job is to expose the genocide and the brutality of the regime,” he said, but “they are targeting freedom of speech here in America.”

Alinejad’s husband, Kambiz Forouhar, urged Judge Lewis Liman to impose the maximum sentence to send a message that “anyone who joins the Islamic Republic to do their dirty work will be held accountable.”

Forohar informed the court that the “threats from a hostile foreign government” have deprived his family of normalcy.

“On one occasion, Rivera missed my wife by only an hour,” Forougher said. “Dangers have forced us to leave our homes, our neighbourhoods, and our friends. Fear is a constant in our lives.”

Alinejad sat with her head in her hands as prosecutors talked about the voice notes exchanged between Rivera and Shakeri. They plotted how to assassinate Alinejad, which included breaking into her home in a home-invasion style or considering a drive-by shooting.

Prosecutors said Rivera and Shakeri met in the New York prison system. Shakeri was serving a sentence on murder charges. Rivera spent 18 years in prison after being found guilty of murder at the age of 18.

The judge described the interaction between Shakeri and Rivera as “exciting”.

Rivera, dressed in a grey prison uniform, cried while apologising “to my fellow Americans and to the woman and man who just spoke,” referring to Alinejad and Forouhar.

Rivera’s fiancée was crying, sitting a few rows behind him. During a break in the sentencing, Alinejad approached Rivera’s fiancée and hugged her. His fiancée apologised repeatedly.

After Rivera was sentenced, Alinejad told CBS News, “Justice is always beautiful. This is justice for me.”

“But, in the big picture, no,” she said, adding that merely putting her potential killers behind bars is not enough.

He pointed to a speech alleging Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had ordered her assassination, in which he referred to an “American agent” who compared the mandatory hijab to the Berlin Wall. Alinejad has made this exact comparison before.

“It’s kind of [Iranian]. The regime on American soil is threatening America’s national security; it is signalling that we can do whatever we want,” he said, referring to Khamenei, adding that real justice would be to put “the man who ordered my assassination… behind bars.” She wants to see him humiliated like former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was captured by US forces in a military operation in Venezuela earlier this month and brought back to New York to face federal charges. ”

Reflecting on Shakeri’s alleged role in targeting both himself and Mr Trump, Alinejad said it is a “badge of honour” that “they want to get rid of me as much as they want to get rid of President Trump.”

She said, “President Trump has the army, everything, the power. I’m just an Iranian, unarmed woman with a lot of hair; I have a big voice. That’s all.” “And that shows you that the regime in Iran is really afraid of its people.

When she first learnt that the same man had conspired to kill her and Mr. Trump, Alinejad laughed and told her husband, “Wow, they think I’m as powerful as President Trump—just my voice.” My weapon is my voice. ” At the same time, he also remembered a feeling of fear, recalling how the Iranian regime had said for years that the US was “the great Satan” and “Iran’s greatest enemy.”

“The same group that targeted President Trump wanted to target me,” Alinejad said. “This means that now in their eyes I am the supreme devil. I am their greatest enemy.”

Loadholt’s sentencing is scheduled for April 23. Shakeri is believed to be in Iran.