Pakistani man with ties to Iran convicted for plotting to kill U.S. President Trump, other American leaders
The Hindu
A Pakistani man linked to Iran was convicted for plotting to assassinate U.S. President Trump and other officials.
A Pakistani man with ties to Iran has been convicted here for plotting to assassinate U.S. President Donald Trump and other American politicians to avenge the death of Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in 2020.
Asif Raza Merchant, 48, was convicted by a federal jury in a Brooklyn court on Friday (March 6) of murder for hire and attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries. Merchant faces up to life in prison.
U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said Merchant came to America with a plot to kill Trump.
The U.S. Justice Department said in a statement that Merchant was a trained operative of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and he had admitted at trial that in 2024 the IRGC sent him to the United States to arrange for political assassinations.
Targets could include Mr. Trump, former President Joseph Biden, and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, and Merchant stated he understood the “target would be Trump”, the Justice Department said.
Merchant arrived in the United States in April 2024, met with purported hitmen in June—who were undercover US law enforcement officers in New York—and was placed under arrest before leaving the country in July 2024.
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