US charges Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran in foiled assassination plot

A Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran has been charged in the United States in connection with a foiled plot to assassinate a US politician or government officials, the Justice Department said on Tuesday.

Asif Merchant, 46, sought to recruit people in the United States to carry out the plot in retaliation for the US killing of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps' top commander, Qasem Soleimani, in 2020, according to a criminal complaint.

Former President Donald Trump, who as president approved the drone strike on Soleimani, was discussed as a potential target of the plot, but the scheme was not conceived of as a plot to assassinate the former president, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Merchant, who prosecutors allege spent time in Iran before traveling to the United States from Pakistan, was charged with murder for hire in federal court in New York's Brooklyn borough. A federal judge ordered him detained on July 17, according to court records.

“For years, the Justice Department has been working aggressively to counter Iran’s brazen and unrelenting efforts to retaliate against American public officials for the killing of Iranian General Soleimani," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

Court documents do not name the alleged targets of the plot. Merchant told a law enforcement informant that there would be "security all around" one target, according to the criminal complaint.

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment further. 

Avraham Moskowitz, a lawyer for Merchant, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“We have not received any reports on this matter from the US Government. However, it is evident that the modus operandi in question contradicts the Iranian Government’s policy of legally prosecuting the murderer of General Soleimani," the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York said in a statement to Reuters.

Reuters