A Pakistani businessman accused of attempting to hire assassins to kill a US political figure during the 2024 presidential campaign was convicted on Friday in a case that prosecutors said exposed an alleged Iran-linked plot on American soil.
A jury in Brooklyn found Asif Merchant, 47, guilty of terrorism and murder-for-hire charges following a week-long trial. He faces a possible life sentence.
ALLEGED IRAN LINK AND POSSIBLE TARGETS
Merchant testified during the trial that he had attempted to arrange an assassination on instructions from a contact he said was linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), though he said no final target was specified.
According to his testimony, the handler mentioned possible targets including US President Donald Trump, then-President Joe Biden and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, who was briefly in the 2024 presidential race.
Iran has denied any involvement in attempts to assassinate US officials.
PLOT UNRAVELS AFTER TIP-OFF
The alleged plot began to unravel after Merchant outlined his plan to an acquaintance, using objects placed on a napkin to illustrate how a shooting at a political rally could be carried out.
The acquaintance instead alerted authorities and introduced Merchant to undercover FBI agents posing as hitmen. Investigators secretly recorded their meetings.
Prosecutors said Merchant told the supposed assassins he needed services that could include killing “some political person” and handed them USD 5,000 in cash during a meeting in a parked car in Manhattan.
“This man landed on American soil hoping to kill President Trump — instead, he was met with the might of American law enforcement,” US Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement after the verdict.
Merchant’s lawyer, Avraham Moskowitz, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
BUSINESSMAN WITH TIES TO PAKISTAN AND IRAN
Court testimony showed that Merchant had worked for Pakistani banks for decades before moving into the clothing and garment business. He maintained families in both Pakistan and Iran and travelled periodically to the United States for business.
Merchant told jurors that he first came into contact with an IRGC intelligence operative about three years ago. The individual allegedly provided him with counter-surveillance training and later assigned him tasks, including the assassination plan.
DEFENCE CLAIMS HE ACTED UNDER THREAT
Merchant told the court he took part in the scheme because he feared harm to relatives living in Iran if he refused to cooperate. “I was going along with it,” he said through an Urdu interpreter, claiming he expected to be arrested before anyone was harmed.
However, prosecutors argued that Merchant took concrete steps to advance the plot and never voluntarily alerted authorities.
He was arrested on July 12, 2024, while preparing to board a flight to Pakistan — a day before an unrelated assassination attempt on Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
US officials later said the Butler gunman appeared to have acted alone, though authorities had been monitoring what they described as an Iranian threat against Trump. Tehran dismissed the allegation as “unsubstantiated and malicious.”
With AP inputs
