The chief of the neo-Nazi “Maniac Homicide Cult,” who plotted to assault New York Metropolis on New 12 months’s Eve utilizing a goon dressed as Santa Claus, was hauled to the US to face prices — because the feds mentioned his hateful screeds succeeded in radicalizing People into committing violence.
Georgian nationwide Michail “Commander Butcher” Chkhikvishvili, 21, impressed “a number of mindless killings” around the globe, together with the lethal Antioch Excessive College taking pictures in January — the place a radicalized ROTC cadet gunned down a 16-year-old teen lady in Nashville, in accordance with a letter from the Justice Division Friday.
Prosecutors mentioned that the Nashville shooter, 17-year-old Solomon Henderson, had proclaimed in audio recordings earlier than the assault that he was “taking motion on behalf of MKY” and had explicitly talked about Chkhikvishvili by identify.
The feds additionally mentioned that Chkhikvishvili was linked to a Turkey knife assault the place a crazed Turkish teen sporting Nazi paraphernalia livestreamed himself stabbing 5 outdoors a mosque in August 2024.
Chkhikvishvili, who was arrested final 12 months in Moldova, was extradited to the US on Thursday — and pleaded not responsible at his arraignment Friday in Brooklyn Federal court docket on a number of felony counts, together with solicitation of hate crime.
In a 22-page prison grievance, prosecutors detailed Chkhikvishvili’s function as a pacesetter and recruiter throughout the “Maniac Homicide Cult,” a Russia and Ukraine-based neo-Nazi group that promotes violence in opposition to racial minorities, Jewish individuals and different so-called “undesirables.”
Chkhikvishvili, who lived along with his grandmother in Brooklyn in 2022, revealed a number of editions of a manifesto referred to as the “Hater’s Handbook,” wherein he inspired others to commit college shootings and different mass terror assaults, whereas providing how-tos with a view to pull off assaults, in accordance with the indictment.
His manifesto shared by the alleged stabbed in Turkey, in accordance with the submitting — which additionally pegs Chkhikvishvili to a different livestream homicide in Romania in April 2022.
Chkhikvishvili, who was arrested in Moldova final 12 months, allegedly tried to plan a hate assault with certainly one of his pal’s donning a Santa Clause costume who would hand out poison-laced sweet to minorities throughout New York Metropolis.
The plot was foiled when the particular person he solicited for the assault was really an undercover FBI agent.
He additionally deliberate an identical place sweet stunt focusing on Jewish college kids in Brooklyn — and despatched data on how you can make bombs and ricin-based poison utilizing castor beans, in accordance with court docket paperwork.
“The defendant has constantly demonstrated that he’s able to orchestrating lethal assaults from behind a pc display at residence,” the feds mentioned within the submitting. “Furthermore, the defendant has repeatedly acknowledged that he has dedicated acts of violence and that he intends to commit extra. The Courtroom ought to take the defendant at his phrase and detain him within the curiosity of public security.”
Brooklyn Federal Justice of the Peace Choose Peggy Kuo ordered Chkhikvishvili on the prosecution’s request discovering that the mad man poses a hazard to society and is taken into account a flight threat.
Chkhikvishvili’s lawyer, Sam Gregory, and requested the decide for a psychological analysis and to place the alleged neo-Nazi below suicide watch on the Metropolitan Detention Heart.
The decide ordered Chkhikvishvili again to court docket for a standing convention on June 11.
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