An alleged Iranian agent accused of plotting to assassinate Donald Trump and other US pols is complaining about conditions in Brooklyn’s notorious federal Metropolitan Detention Center — including how he can’t get salt and pepper for his vegetarian slop.
Asif Merchant, 46, has been holed up in solitary confinement at the federal lockup in Sunset Park since he was nabbed last July over the alleged murder-for-hire plot to take out current and former government officials.
Merchant is complaining about conditions in the notoriously strict jail, which is also home to disgraced rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs and accused UnitedHealthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione.
In a letter to the judge, Merchant’s lawyer claims that “arbitrary and capricious” rules are being inflicted only to make his “life at the MDC more miserable.”
That includes the Pakistani national being unable to get warm clothes for his cold cell or sauces or seasoning for his bland meals while in the jail’s Special Administrative Measures (SAMS) unit, according to the letter sent to US District Judge Eric Komitee.
“Unfortunately, despite numerous requests, the MDC has not allowed Mr. Merchant to have salt or pepper to season his meals and has not allowed him to purchase from the commissary any sauce or seasoning that would give his food some flavor,” his lawyer, Avraham Moskowitz, wrote.
“Indeed, Mr. Merchant has been told that most of the food items that the other inmates are allowed to buy from the commissary, are not available to him for purchase. Thus, for example, he is not allowed to buy spicy chips of any kind that could be put in his vegetarian meals to add flavor.”
“These restrictions make no sense and certainly are not based on any security needs,” the lawyer added.
Merchant has also allegedly been prevented from buying a sweatshirt or sweatpants from the commissary to keep warm, his lawyer said.
His family, too, have been barred from sending him warmer clothing from Amazon.
“Merchant’s cell (and the attorney conference room on Unit 84) is very cold and he often comes to attorney-client meetings shivering from cold,” the lawyer wrote.
“On the one occasion when Mr. Merchant was brought to the courthouse to meet with me and review discovery, he was so cold that he wore my winter coat throughout the meeting so he could warm up.”
His attorney urged the judge to order MDC to improve Merchant’s conditions, arguing that the fact he’s “subject to SAMS does not mean that he should have to eat bland food in a cold cell without proper clothing to keep himself warm.”
“The conditions of confinement under which Mr. Merchant is being held are inhumane, intolerable and are interfering with his constitutional right to counsel and to prepare a defense,” the attorney added.
Merchant is being held at the notorious federal lockup alongside high-profile inmates, including accused sex-trafficker Combs and alleged assassin Mangione.
He was arrested and charged last year for allegedly planning political assassinations in the Big Apple in August or early September — and paid $5,000 in advance to men he believed to be contract killers, federal prosecutors said.
The plot was allegedly in retaliation for the 2020 Trump-ordered killing of prominent Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani, according to the feds.
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