A 21-year-old leader of an Eastern European neo-Nazi group has been extradited to the United States from Moldova and arraigned in federal court in Brooklyn on serious charges including soliciting hate crimes and acts of mass violence, The Associated Press reported on Friday.
Michail Chkhikvishvili, also known as “Commander Butcher,” pleaded not guilty through his attorney, who requested a psychiatric evaluation and suicide watch for his client.
Prosecutors identify Chkhikvishvili, a Georgian national, as the head of the "Maniac Murder Cult," an international extremist organization promoting "neo-Nazi accelerationist ideology and violence against racial minorities, the Jewish community, and other groups it deems 'undesirables.'"
The group's violent solicitations, disseminated via Telegram and detailed in a manifesto titled the "Hater's Handbook," are believed to have incited multiple real-world killings.
Court documents reveal Chkhikvishvili's frequent travel to Brooklyn since 2022, where he allegedly boasted of assaulting an elderly Jewish man and instructed others to commit violent acts on behalf of his group. A particularly disturbing scheme involved Chkhikvishvili recruiting an undercover FBI agent to dress as Santa Claus and distribute poisoned candy to racial minorities and children at Jewish schools in Brooklyn.
Prosecutors noted that Chkhikvishvili later suggested narrowing the focus to "dead Jewish kids," observing that "Jews are literally everywhere" in Brooklyn.
Chkhikvishvili, expressing a desire for a mass casualty attack, reportedly cited the "big potential because accessibility to firearms" in the United States, suggesting targeting homeless individuals as the government "wouldn’t care even if they die."
His arrest occurred last July in Moldova, leading to his recent extradition.
Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a statement, declaring, "This case is a stark reminder of the kind of terrorism we face today: online networks plotting unspeakable acts of violence against children, families, and the Jewish community in pursuit of a depraved, extremist ideology."
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)