A federal court in New York has sentenced Niloufar Bahadorifar, an Iranian-American woman, who had pleaded guilty in a plot to kidnap opposition figure Masih Alinejad, to four years in prison.

Bahadorifar, had also confessed to conspiring to break US economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic by helping to provide money to a private investigator, who was tasked with monitoring Alinejad.

During the court session on Friday, Bahadorifar apologized to Alinejad calling her “a hero to all Iranians.” However, according to Alinejad, the judge realized the defendant was trying to abuse all Iranian women to show herself as a "victim of the Islamic Republic and the patriarchal system".

“Niloufar Bahadorifar willfully violated sanctions and knowingly provided financial support to Iranian intelligence assets, who in turn were engaged in a plot to kidnap an Iranian human rights activist living in the United States whom the Iranian government has sought to silence for years,” said US Attorney Damian Williams.

Alinejad, who campaigns against mandatory hijab and other rights issues was the target of an international kidnapping plot orchestrated by Iran’s intelligence network in 2021. She has a considerable following in Iran especially among women with 8.8 million followers on Instagram and 721,000 on Twitter.

US authorities charged an Iranian intelligence agent and some others with attempting to abduct Alinejad and take her back to Iran, but the regime in Tehran denies the charge and the four defendants, who all reside in Iran, have never stood trial.