A 46-year-old Pakistani man, Asif Merchant, has been indicted by the United States for allegedly planning political assassinations linked to Iran. According to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice, Merchant traveled to New York in June where he supposedly sought to hire a hitman to kill a politician or a U.S. official as retribution for the assassination of a prominent Iranian military commander in 2020.
Merchant, who is reported to have resided in Iran prior to his journey from Pakistan to the U.S., faces charges of murder-for-hire in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York. He was arrested in July while preparing to leave the U.S., after allegedly informing a potential hitman that he would provide further instructions—including the names of the intended targets—upon his return to Pakistan in August or September.
Avraham Moskowitz, Merchant’s attorney, declined to comment on the case when contacted by the Associated Press. The names of the planned targets have not yet been publicly disclosed, but the Department of Justice has stated that there is no evidence linking Merchant to an attempted murder of former President Donald Trump on July 13 in Pennsylvania.
According to prosecutors, Merchant’s search for a hitman relates to Iran’s longstanding desire to avenge the killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a drone strike in 2020. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland stated that the Department of Justice has been actively working for years to counter Iran’s aggressive and relentless efforts to take revenge on U.S. officials for Soleimani’s death. The court documents do not mention the intended targets of the plot. Merchant informed an informant that there would be “security everywhere” around one of the planned targets, according to the criminal complaint.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York issued a statement to Reuters, saying that they had not received reports from the U.S. government regarding the case, but that the choice of method contradicts the Iranian government’s policy of legally prosecuting those responsible for the death of General Soleimani.
While Trump, who approved the drone strike that killed Soleimani, was discussed as a potential target, sources indicated that there was not considered to be a concrete plan to assassinate him. Merchant is identified as a Pakistani citizen who claims to have family in Iran and frequently travels to Iran, Syria, and Iraq. U.S. authorities were able to halt his plans before an attack could be carried out.
An individual whom Merchant contacted in April for assistance with the plot reported his activities to authorities and became a confidential source in the case. Merchant allegedly informed the informant that his plans also included stealing documents from a target and organizing protests in the U.S., according to the indictments.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, confirmed that the government is in contact with U.S. authorities regarding this matter.