The United States says it has foiled a plan to assassinate an American political figure or government officials, masterminded by a Pakistani affiliate of Iran.
"For years, the Justice Department has been working aggressively to counter Iran's brazen and unrelenting efforts to retaliate against American public officials for the killing of Iranian General Soleimani," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement on Tuesday.
Asif Merchant, a Pakistani national linked to Iran, was arrested and charged with “homicide through hired killers,” added Garland, who was flanked by FBI Director Christopher Wray and Breon Peace, a Federal Prosecutor from Brooklyn, New York.
Merchant was arrested on 12 July by FBI personnel pretending to be hired gunmen, and subsequently detained. He is suspected of planning the murder of U.S. government officials on US soil, working on behalf of people overseas, Prosecutor Peace charged.
Without identifying the intended targets, Garland dismissed any connection between the accused and the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania on 13 July, following rumours of an Iranian plot.
The 46-year-old Pakistani was arrested just before leaving the U.S., and is seen by Washington as “closely linked to Iran” for having a wife and children in Tehran. He has another family in Karachi, Pakistan.
FBI Director Christopher Wary said the alleged murder-for-hire plot was "straight out of the Iranian playbook."
