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

New York: A Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran was found guilty Friday of plotting to assassinate President Donald Trump or other US officials in retaliation for the American military killing of Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani, prosecutors said.

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 Wednesday, Merchant testified that he was forced into the plot to protect his family in the Iranian capital Tehran from the Guards, 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 — President 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 told 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.”

Washington said it aimed to curb nuclear and missile threats from Tehran but it has also decapitated the country’s government, and President Donald Trump is now demanding “unconditional surrender.”

Merchant was arrested on July 12, 2024 as he planned to leave the country.