Michail Chkhikvishvili, a 22-year-old neo-Nazi leader known as ‘Commander Butcher,’ has pleaded guilty in New York to orchestrating a plot to poison children with candy and plan bomb attacks targeting Jewish communities. His case has drawn widespread condemnation over the potential harm these plans could have caused if executed. Chkhikvishvili, a citizen of the Republic of Georgia, was extradited from Moldova to the Eastern District of New York in May.
Federal prosecutors allege that Chkhikvishvili led the Maniac Murder Cult, an extremist group advocating violence to spark a racial and religious war. The group’s manifesto, the