The chief of the neo-Nazi “Maniac Murder Cult,” who plotted to assault New York Metropolis on New Yr’s Eve utilizing a goon dressed as Santa Claus, was hauled to the US to face expenses — because the feds mentioned his hateful screeds succeeded in radicalizing Individuals into committing violence.
Georgian nationwide Michail “Commander Butcher” Chkhikvishvili, 21, impressed “multiple senseless killings” all over the world, together with the lethal Antioch Excessive College capturing in January — the place a radicalized ROTC cadet gunned down a 16-year-old teen woman 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 action 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 carrying Nazi paraphernalia livestreamed himself stabbing 5 exterior 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 criticism, prosecutors detailed Chkhikvishvili’s position as a pacesetter and recruiter inside the “Maniac Murder 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 together with his grandmother in Brooklyn in 2022, revealed a number of editions of a manifesto referred to as the “Hater’s Handbook,” during which he inspired others to commit faculty shootings and different mass terror assaults, whereas providing how-tos with the intention 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 individual he solicited for the assault was really an undercover FBI agent.
He additionally deliberate an analogous place sweet stunt concentrating on Jewish faculty youngsters in Brooklyn — and despatched data on the best way to make bombs and ricin-based poison utilizing castor beans, in accordance with court docket paperwork.
“The defendant has consistently demonstrated that he is capable of orchestrating deadly attacks from behind a computer screen at home,” the feds mentioned within the submitting. “Moreover, the defendant has repeatedly stated that he has committed acts of violence and that he intends to commit more. The Court should take the defendant at his word and detain him in the interest of public safety.”
Brooklyn Federal Justice of the Peace Decide 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 danger.
Chkhikvishvili’s legal professional, Sam Gregory, and requested the decide for a psychological analysis and to place the alleged neo-Nazi beneath suicide watch on the Metropolitan Detention Middle.
The decide ordered Chkhikvishvili again to court docket for a standing convention on June 11.
