Brooklyn man sentenced to 15 years for Iran-backed plot to kill dissident

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A Brooklyn man named Carlisle Rivera was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his role in a failed Iran-backed murder-for-hire plot against Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad, who lives in the United States. Rivera pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and stalking charges related to the alleged plot orchestrated by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and intelligence officials.

Why it matters

This case is part of a broader crackdown by the U.S. Justice Department on what it calls "transnational repression" - the targeting of political opponents by authoritarian governments on foreign soil. Iran has repeatedly tried to target Alinejad, a prominent critic of Iran's head-covering laws, who has promoted videos of women violating those laws to her millions of social media followers.

The details

According to federal prosecutors, Carlisle Rivera, also known as "Pop", took part in the failed Iran-backed plot to kill Alinejad, who was living in Brooklyn at the time. Rivera pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and one count of conspiracy to commit stalking before being sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman for the Southern District of New York.

• On January 28, 2026, Carlisle Rivera was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

What’s next

The judge's sentence of 15 years in prison for Carlisle Rivera concludes the criminal case against him related to the Iran-backed plot to kill Masih Alinejad.