US charges Iran-linked Pakistani over political assassination plot

Asif Merchant is accused of seeking a hitman to kill unnamed officials as revenge for US assassination of Iranian military chief.

The United States has charged a Pakistani man, who it alleges has ties to Iran, with plotting to carry out political assassinations.

Asif Merchant travelled to New York in June seeking to hire a hitman to kill a politician or a US government official in revenge for the 2020 assassination of a senior Iranian military commander, according to a statement issued by the US Justice Department on Wednesday.

Merchant, who prosecutors allege spent time in Iran before travelling to the US from Pakistan, was charged with murder for hire in federal court in New York’s Brooklyn borough.

He was arrested in July as he prepared to leave the US, after having told the potential hitman that he would provide further instructions, including the names of the intended targets, in August or September after he returned to Pakistan.

Avraham Moskowitz, a lawyer for Merchant, declined to comment on Tuesday when reached by the Associated Press news agency.

The name of the intended target has not been revealed but the attorney general said no evidence has emerged to link Merchant with the July 13 assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

According to the charges, Merchant’s hunt for a hitman was linked with a longstanding urge by Iran to retaliate against the US over the 2020 killing of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp’s (IRGC) top commander Qassem Soleimani.

“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,”