After being arrested last summer for allegedly ordering an undercover federal agent to pose as Santa Claus and distribute poisoned candy to racial minorities and Jewish children, the leader of a neo-Nazi organisation in eastern Europe was extradited to the United States from Moldova, according to prosecutors.
The 21-year-old Georgia native Michail Chkhikvishvili was charged with many counts, including inciting hate crimes and acts of mass violence, by a federal judge in Brooklyn on Friday. He entered a not guilty plea through lawyer Samuel Gregory, who asked that his client be put on suicide watch while in detention and undergo a mental health assessment.
The Maniac Murder Cult, an international extremist organisation that follows a “neo-Nazi accelerationist ideology and promotes violence and violent acts against racial minorities, the Jewish community, and other groups it deems ‘undesirables,'” is led by Chkhikvishvili, also known as “Commander Butcher,” according to the prosecution.
They said that the group’s violent appeals, which were disseminated via Telegram channels and detailed in a manifesto known as the “Hater’s Handbook,” seem to have served as the impetus for many actual murders, including a school shooting in Nashville earlier this year that claimed the life of a 16-year-old student.
Chkhikvishvili has made several trips to Brooklyn since 2022, when he boasted of assaulting an elderly Jewish man and gave orders to others to carry out violent deeds on behalf of the Maniac Murder Cult, mostly via text messages.
Also Read:
In Texas, a Deadly Measles Outbreak Does little to Dispel Vaccine Skepticism
