The leader of an Eastern European neo-Nazi group has been sentenced to 15 years in jail for making an attempt to recruit others to commit violent assaults in opposition to Jews and racial minorities, including one plot that might have concerned dressing as Santa Claus handy out poisoned sweet to youngsters.
Michail Chkhikvishvili, a 22-year-old from the nation of Georgia who goes by the nickname “Commander Butcher,” was sentenced by a federal choose in Brooklyn on Wednesday. He pleaded guilty in November to soliciting hate crimes and distributing details about making bombs and ricin.
“I acknowledge that my actions have brought harm by spreading hatred and violence and I’m truly sorry for that,” Chkhikvishvili wrote in a letter to the choose final month.
His lawyer, Zachary Taylor, requested for a five-year sentence, citing Chkhikvishvili’s psychological well being struggles since he was a teenager who “fell under the spell of the violent extremist content” on social media, however has since reformed. Taylor additionally talked about harsh circumstances throughout Chkhikvishvili’s practically yearlong confinement in Moldova, the place he was arrested in 2024 on a world warrant, in keeping with his letter to the choose.
Prosecutors described Chkhikvishvili because the leader of the Maniac Murder Cult, a world extremist group that adheres to a neo-Nazi ideology selling violence meant to set off a racial and non secular conflict.
They stated the group’s violent solicitations — promoted by Telegram channels and outlined within the “Hater’s Handbook” — seem to have impressed a number of real-life killings, including a school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, final yr that left a 16-year-old scholar lifeless.
Chkhikvishvili (*15*) Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg stated in a assertion. “Chkhikvishvili, for example, tried to recruit a supposed associate to dress up as Santa Claus and pass out poisoned candy to minority children.”
Since 2021, prosecutors stated Chkhikvishvili distributed the “Hater’s Handbook” to members and others.
“I’m very ashamed authoring Haters Handbook, hoping one day it will disappear, I wish I never wrote it,” Chkhikvishvili wrote to the choose.
Prosecutors stated Chkhikvishvili traveled to Brooklyn in 2022 and started repeatedly encouraging others to commit hate crimes and different acts of violence. They stated in 2023, he solicited an undercover FBI worker to commit bombings and arsons “for the purpose of harming racial minorities, Jewish individuals and others.”
In 2024, the undercover employee was directed “to target the Jewish community, Jewish schools, and Jewish children in Brooklyn with poison,” prosecutors stated in a assertion.
“Chkhikvishvili sent detailed manuals about creating and mixing lethal poisons and gases, including ricin.”