Pakistani man found guilty of Iran-linked plot to assassinate Trump, US officials

A Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran has been found guilty of plotting to assassinate US President Donald Trump or other US officials in retaliation for the American military killing of Islamic Revolutionary Revolutionary Guards Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, prosecutors say.

Asif Raza Merchant allegedly sought to hire a hitman to assassinate a politician or a government official in the United States, prosecutors established during the trial in a federal court in Brooklyn.

Soleimani, the head of Iran’s foreign military operations, was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020. Iranian officials have repeatedly vowed to avenge his killing.

During his trial, Merchant testified that he was forced into the plot to protect his family in the Iranian capital Tehran from the IRGC, adding that he thought he would get caught before anyone was killed, multiple media outlets reported.

He said he was never ordered to kill a specific person but noted his Iranian contact had mentioned three people in connection with the plot — Trump, former president Joe Biden and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley.

Merchant will be scheduled at an unconfirmed future date after his conviction on both counts that he faced — transnational terrorism and murder for hire — a spokesman for prosecutors tells AFP. He could face life imprisonment.

Merchant’s trial comes as the US and Israel carry out attacks on Iran, which have killed Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

US officials previously said Merchant had “close ties to Iran” and described his alleged plot as “straight out of the Iranian regime’s playbook.”