NEW YORK: A Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges stemming from an alleged plot to assassinate an American politician in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards top commander Qassem Soleimani.

Asif Merchant, 46, entered his plea to one count of attempting to commit terrorism across national boundaries and one count of murder for hire at a hearing before US Magistrate Judge Robert Levy in Brooklyn.

The judge ordered that Merchant be detained pending trial.

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Federal prosecutors alleged Merchant spent time in Iran before traveling to the US to recruit people for the plot. They alleged Merchant also planned to steal documents from one target and organise protests in the United States.

The defendant named Donald Trump as a potential target but had not conceived the scheme as a plan to assassinate the former president, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Court papers do not name the alleged targets, and no attacks were made. As president, Trump had in 2020 approved the drone strike on Soleimani.

There are no suggestions that Merchant was tied to an apparent assassination attempt on Trump at his Florida golf course on Sunday, or a separate shooting of the Republican presidential candidate at a rally in Pennsylvania in July.

Defence lawyer Avraham Moskowitz objected at the hearing to the jail conditions. He said Merchant was being held in isolation and had lost 15 to 20 pounds because jail officials would not serve a halal diet appropriate for a Muslim.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2024