Islamic Republic
After remaining largely silent about death threats targeting the Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad in 2020, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists “strongly condemned” last week the
alleged plot by Iran’s clerical regime to kidnap her.
CPJ spokesperson Bebe Santa-Wood sent The Jerusalem Post a statement on Monday that the organization posted on its website on July 14 after the FBI revealed that Iranian regime intelligence operatives sought to kidnap Alinejad.
“US officials’ indictment of five Iranian nationals suspected of plotting to kidnap journalist Masih Alinejad shows that Iranian intelligence agents will stop at nothing to silence independent members of the press, even those abroad,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour, adding that “US authorities must ensure that the perpetrators of this scheme are held to account, and Iran must cease its efforts to harass and harm journalists globally.”
The Post asked Santa-Wood if the committee regrets its refusal last December to condemn the death threats against Alinejad.
At the time, Santa-Wood wrote that “I checked with my colleagues and they said they have looked into this situation, but at this time believe she has been targeted as an activist, rather than in response to her journalism, so it wouldn’t be a case for CPJ.
“We are continuing to monitor the case, and should anything change or we choose to publish something, I would be happy to send it your way.”
Alinejad is a journalist for Voice of America and a womens’ rights activist. She also founded the United for Navid campaign named after champion Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari who was executed last September by the
Islamic Republic for his participation in a 2018 demonstration against regime corruption.
The Post also reached out via phone calls and emails to the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders in December about the death threats targeting Alinejad. RWB declined to respond at the time and has not answered Post queries about the kidnapping plot. A search of the Reporters Without Borders English website did not show any condemnation of Iran’s regime for its operation to kidnap Alinejad.
It is unclear why RWB remains silent about one of the most high-profile plots to kidnap a world-famous journalist.
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Reza Moini, the head the Afghanistan and Iran desk at Reporters Without Borders, told the Post in January,2021 " the case of Massih, which is one of the important cases for RSF.
I must remind you that the threat against foreign-based journalists is a concern of our organization. For the past 5 years we have issued at least 8 press releases on this subject. From Turkey to the United States, these journalists are threatened and, in any case, receive death threats. In 2020, RWB has received at least 35 threats, including 14 death threats."
Moini added that "We believe that the most appropriate response to these threats is to lodge a complaint against the regime and the protection of the countries in which these journalists live. In the last press release we issued, RWB asked the leaders of the country that these media outlets are hosting to react to these threats against these journalists who are willing or even citizens of their countries. Especially for Massih, who we had already condemned several times these attacks and threats.
Massih, in addition to being the victim of open threats from the regime's leaders, is also the victim of a hostage-taking from her family. Her brother was arrested and sentenced to 8 years in prison only because she did not want to collaborate with the intelligence services to trap her sister and her arrest! and to prevent the journalistic activities of this woman."
Attorney Audrey Strauss said in the indictment that Iranian agents and an Iranian in California “monitored and planned to kidnap a US citizen of Iranian origin who has been critical of the regime’s autocracy, and to forcibly take their intended victim to Iran.”
Intelligence agents of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, a US-designated terrorist organization, “have previously lured overseas journalists and activists to third countries where they kidnapped them and returned them to Iran,” wrote CPJ. “In 2019, authorities abducted journalist Roohollah Zam from Iraq and executed him in 2020.”
The US prosecutor’s indictment said Iranian regime agents planned to bring Alinejad to Venezuela and then to Iran. Venezuela’s socialist regime is an ally of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
