USA: un Pakistanais jugé pour un projet d'assassinat de Trump met en cause l'Iran
A Pakistani man on trial in a New York court for plotting the assassination of American political figures, including Donald Trump, explained on Wednesday that he had worked with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to US media reports.
Asif Merchant, 47, on trial for "terrorism" and "murder by contract" in Brooklyn federal court, said he was forced to participate in the plot to protect his family in Tehran from the Revolutionary Guards, according to the New York Times.
Arrested in July 2024 by agents of the federal police (FBI) posing as hitmen, Asif Merchant wanted to represent himself.
"My family was threatened and I had no choice," the accused testified through an Urdu interpreter. "I wasn't prepared to do it willingly," he said, according to the Washington Post.
He stated that he expected to be arrested before anyone was killed and that he intended to cooperate with the US government.
Merchant stated that his superior had asked him to search for American residents interested in working for Iran. He was then given another mission: to find a criminal to organize demonstrations, commit robberies, launder money, and perhaps have someone assassinated.
"He didn't tell me exactly who it was, but he mentioned three names: Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Nikki Haley (former governor of South Carolina and candidate for the Republican nomination, editor's note)," he said.
The trial is taking place against the backdrop of a war against Iran that began on Saturday and has cost the life of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said a U.S. airstrike had killed the head of the secret Iranian unit that had plotted to assassinate Mr. Trump in 2024.
"Iran tried to assassinate President Trump, and President Trump had the last word," he insisted, adding that the United States had "long known that Iran intended to try to assassinate President Trump and/or other American officials."
The Iranian government has denied plotting to assassinate Trump or other American officials.
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