Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-born journalist who was targeted in a kidnapping plot by four Iranian nationals told Fox News on Wednesday that the regime in Tehran “cannot break me”.
Alinejad, who has been relocated by the FBI her to an undisclosed safe house, told the network she has been targeted by the regime of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani for her work chronicling public beatings in the streets of the capital Tehran, and imagery of Iranian women's brave acts, such as removing their Islamic hijab – which is a high crime there.
Alinejad, an American citizen, said she was in her New York City apartment when the FBI disrupted the plot by four individuals to reportedly kidnap her and seek "maritime"-based military-style evacuation to Venezuela. The FBI has a bulletin seeking information to help capture the four suspects: Kiya Sadeghi, Mahmoud Khazein, Omid Noori and Alireza Shahvaroghi-Farahani.
Alinejad said that her coverage in a country that lacks constitutional freedom of the press or speech has resulted in multiple family members being personally targeted and oppressed by the terror-supporting regime.
She reiterated, however, that she is undeterred in her mission as a citizen journalist to expose the oppression and human rights violations of the Rouhani regime, which will soon give way to the even more hardline President-elect Ebrahim Raisi.
"[The plot was] scary, to be honest. I got goosebumps when I heard about the details," she told Fox News. "To be honest, that shows that the regime is scared of me. They are really scared of women. They're scared of their own people."
"I'm a journalist. I'm not a criminal. I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm giving voice to people inside Iran who dare to share their videos filming, bravely, the brutal regime. That scares the government," Alinejad continued. "That's it… Sometimes I tell myself that this government did everything to break me."
Alinejad added that her work has now led to a new law in Tehran banning others from sending her footage.
"The head of the court said if anyone sends videos to Masih, we'll charge them 10 years in prison. Can you believe that? [Yet] all of this didn't stop people. That's why they arrested my brother. That didn't stop me," she said.
The interview comes a day after the US Justice Department announced charges against four Iranian intelligence agents and a co-conspirator living in the US who allegedly plotted to kidnap Alinejad.
"This is not some far-fetched movie plot. We allege a group, backed by the Iranian government, conspired to kidnap a U.S. based journalist here on our soil and forcibly return her to Iran. Not on our watch," said FBI Assistant Director William F. Sweeney.