The Treasury Department announced sanctions against Iranian intelligence network operatives who plotted to kidnap an Iranian-born U.S. author-journalist critical of the Tehran regime in New York City for “rendition” to Iran.

The plot’s target was Masih Alinejad, a journalist and prominent outspoken women’s rights activist. A July indictment charged “four Iranian nationals with conspiracies related to kidnapping, sanctions violations, bank and wire fraud, and money laundering.”