Pakistani to face US court on murder plot

A Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran is set to appear in US court on Monday on charges of scheming to assassinate an American politician in retaliation for the killing of Iran's Revolutionary Guards top commander Qassem Soleimani.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn say Asif Merchant, 46, spent time in Iran before traveling to the United States to recruit people for the plot. Merchant told a confidential informant he also planned to steal documents from one target and organise protests in the United States, prosecutors said.

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.