Brooklyn Man Gets 15 Years in Iran Plot to Kill Dissident

A federal judge in Manhattan sentenced a Brooklyn man to 15 years in prison on Wednesday for his role in an Iran-backed plot to assassinate a prominent Iranian dissident living in the United States.

Carlisle Rivera, 51, had pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit stalking. U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman imposed the maximum sentence during a hearing in the Southern District of New York, describing Rivera's actions as chilling and noting the significant harm inflicted on the target and her family.

Prosecutors said the plot targeted Masih Alinejad, a journalist and human rights activist who fled Iran in 2009 after criticizing the government's disputed presidential election. Alinejad, who became a U.S. citizen in 2019, has built a large online following by sharing videos of Iranian women defying the country's mandatory head-covering laws. She resided in Brooklyn at the time of the alleged scheme.

According to court documents, Rivera was recruited by Farhad Shakeri, an Iranian asset linked to the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, whom Rivera met while both were incarcerated in New York state prison. Shakeri, now living in...