Federal judge sentences man to 10 years in plot to kill Iranian American writer
NEW YORK (AP) — A former truck and bus driver charged in an assassination plot against an Iranian American writer who authorities said was targeted for death by the Iranian government was given a 10-year prison sentence on Wednesday by a federal judge.
The judge, Lewis J. Liman, sentenced Jonathan Loadholt, 37, of Staten Island, in Manhattan federal court after he pleaded guilty to conspiracies to commit stalking and launder money in an attack plot that targeted Masih Alinejad in Brooklyn in 2024.
James Barnacle, head of New York's FBI office, said in a release that Loadholt was tasked by the government of Iran to surveil Alinejad and eventually assassinate her, but the FBI arrested him first.
U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said Loadholt was a U.S. citizen driven by greed to kill Alinejad.
Clayton said the government of Iran “tried to silence Ms. Alinejad because of her efforts to stand up to the Iranian regime and expose its discriminatory treatment of women, corruption, and human rights abuses.”
In court papers, lawyers for Loadholt requested leniency, saying “a reckless and senseless decision made at the behest of a friend cost him his job, his freedom, and years with his family he will never get back.”
They also wrote that Loadholt was never asked to commit murder and was largely kept in the dark about the true plan for the surveillance he was asked to carry out, although they acknowledged that he “clearly understood the potential for serious violence.”
In a letter to the judge, Loadholt said he was “very ashamed.”
“It was wrong on every level,” he said.
In January, Loadholt's friend, Carlisle Rivera, apologized in court before he was sentenced to 15 years in prison in the plot.
Alinejad left Iran in 2009 following the country’s disputed presidential election and moved to the United States, where she launched online campaigns to encourage Iranian women to pose for pictures and videos showing their hair in defiance of a religious rule requiring headscarves.
An author and contributor to the 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 women’s freedom of expression, particularly those in Iran.
Last year she testified at the trial of two men charged with plotting to kidnap her from her Brooklyn home and kill her in 2022. A prosecutor said Iran put a $500,000 bounty on her head. The defendants, both natives of Azerbaijan, were convicted and sentenced to 25 years.
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