Incident details
- Updated on
- Date of incident
- November 8, 2024
- Targets
- Masih Alinejad (Independent)
Iranian American independent journalist Masih Alinejad in New York in 2023. The Justice Department announced charges on Nov. 8, 2024, against three men it accused of plotting to murder her.
New York City man sentenced to prison for plot to kill journalist
One of three men accused of involvement in a conspiracy to murder Iranian American journalist Masih Alinejad was sentenced to 15 years in prison in New York, New York, on Jan. 28, 2026.
New York City resident Carlisle Rivera, who pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit murder-for-hire and stalking in October 2025, was also sentenced to three years of probation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced.
During the sentencing, Rivera apologized to “my fellow Americans” and to Alinejad, who attended the hearing, The New York Times reported.
Prosecutors said Rivera had been hired by Iranian citizen Farhad Shakeri to kill Alinejad, and then enlisted his friend Jonathan Loadholt to help. Shakeri is still at large. Loadholt pleaded guilty to stalking and conspiracy to launder money in January 2026 and is scheduled to be sentenced in April.
Since July 2021, thirteen people have been charged in connection with plans to kidnap and murder Alinejad, some of whom the Department of Justice alleges are connected to the Iranian government.
Alinejad, a U.S. citizen originally from Iran, is a vocal critic of the Iranian government and fled that country in 2009, the Times reported.
In a post on social platform X, Alinejad thanked U.S. law enforcement, the New York Police Department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, and accused Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of ordering her murder.
“Thanks to the FBI, NYPD, and SDNY for stopping three assassination plots on U.S. soil,” she wrote. “That gave me a second life. Five regime-hired hitmen are now in U.S. prisons.”
The Department of Justice announced charges on Nov. 8, 2024, against three men it accused of surveilling and plotting to murder New York-based Iranian American journalist Masih Alinejad. Thirteen others have been indicted in connection with murder-for-hire plots against Alinejad.
Alinejad, referred to as “Victim-1” in the DOJ’s news release, confirmed in a social media post that she was the target of the plot. Iranian citizen Farhad Shakeri and U.S. citizens Carlisle Rivera and Jonathon Loadholt have been charged with murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, and money laundering conspiracy. Rivera and Loadholt were arrested on Nov. 7.
Shakeri, who the DOJ said is still at large, was also allegedly tasked with “providing a plan to kill President-elect Donald J. Trump.”
“I just learned from the @FBI that two men were arrested yesterday in a new plot to kill me at Fairfield University, where I was scheduled to give a talk,” Alinejad wrote in the social media post. “I came to America to practice my First Amendment right to freedom of speech—I don’t want to die. I want to fight against tyranny, and I deserve to be safe.”
Alinejad, a U.S. citizen originally from Iran, is a vocal critic of the Iranian government and fled that country in 2009, The New York Times reported.
Shakeri was also charged with providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization — the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — and conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and sanctions against the government of Iran.
Since July 2021, thirteen people have been charged in connection with plans to kidnap and murder Alinejad, some of whom the DOJ alleges are connected to the Iranian government.
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