New York: A Pakistani citizen has been charged in an elaborate plot that reads like a spy thriller to assassinate Republican presidential candidate Donald
A Pakistani citizen has been charged in an elaborate plot that reads like a spy thriller to assassinate Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland, who announced the charges against Asif Merchant on Tuesday, indicated that the target was Trump, but did not name him.
“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 Qassem Soleimani,” he said.
Trump was the US President who ordered the killing of Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in 2020, which points the assassination plot towards Trump.
According to court documents, others may also have been intended victims because of the mention of targets in the plural.
Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI) Chief Christopher Wray said, “This dangerous murder-for-hire plot exposed in today’s charges allegedly was orchestrated by a Pakistani national with close ties to Iran and is straight out of the Iranian playbook.”
The alleged plotter, who is also known as Asif Raza Merchant, told officials that he has two wives, one each in Pakistan and in Iran, as well as children in both countries.
In the complaint filed in the Federal court in Brooklyn, the plot reads like a spy thriller with an elaborate scheme to burglarise the home of a target, creating diversions with protests and rallies, and killing the politician.
