Asif Raza Merchant highlighted that his Iranian contact had mentioned three names: the American president, former president Joe Biden and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley
A Pakistani accused of planning the murder of American politicians, including President Donald Trump, stated on Wednesday (4) which was pressured by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to draw up the plan, according to the US press.
Asif Raza Merchant47 years old, was accused in September 2024 in the American Court of try to hire a hitman to kill American politicians. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
During his trial on Wednesday, Merchant stated that he was forced to participate in the plot to protect his family in Tehran from the Iranian Guardand that he believed he would be caught before anyone was killed, multiple media outlets reported.
He said that never received the order to kill a specific personbut highlighted that his Iranian contact had mentioned three names: Trump, former President Joe Biden and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.
“My family was under threat and I had to do this,” Merchant told the court through an Urdu interpreter, according to The Washington Post.
The, in which they killed their supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Pentagon stated on Wednesday that, during operations, American forces who tried to assassinate Trump.
United States leaders previously accused Iran of trying to assassinate the Republican to avenge the death of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, killed in a drone strike in Iraq in 2020, ordered by Trump during his first presidential term.
Authorities have previously said that Merchant had “close ties to Iran” and described the alleged plot as “taken straight from the Iranian regime’s playbook.”
The accused declared this week that he began working in 2022 with a member of the Guard who asked him if he was “interested in doing some work with the Iranian government,” according to The New York Times.
He ended up receiving instructions to orchestrate a plan that involved organizing protests, stealing documents, laundering money and, potentially, having someone killed.
According to the New York Times, Merchant said he was worried about what could happen to his wife and adopted daughter in Iran, and that’s why he accepted the operation.
He was detained after allegedly trying to hire hit men who were actually undercover FBI agents.
*With AFP
