Michail Chkhikvishvili, a Georgian neo-Nazi leader also known as “Commander Butcher,” was sentenced in Brooklyn to 15 years in prison for trying to recruit others to commit violent attacks against Jews and racial minorities, including a plot prosecutors described as involving poisoned candy for children, the Associated Press reported.
According to the federal case, the 22-year-old pleaded guilty in November to soliciting hate crimes and distributing information about making bombs and ricin. In a letter to the judge submitted last month, Chkhikvishvili acknowledged that “my actions have brought harm by spreading hatred and violence and I’m truly sorry for that.”
At sentencing on Wednesday, prosecutors described Chkhikvishvili as the leader of an international extremist group they said follows a neo-Nazi ideology intended to trigger a racial and religious war. Prosecutors said his violent solicitations—promoted through Telegram channels and outlined in the “Hater’s Handbook”—appeared to have inspired multiple real-life killings, including a Nashville, Tennessee, school shooting last year that left a 16-year-old student dead.
The government said Chkhikvishvili “repeatedly called for the murder of innocent civilians, including children,” and “schemed to attack and terrorize Jewish communities and racial minorities in the United States.” In one episode prosecutors described, he tried to recruit a supposed associate to dress as Santa Claus and hand out poisoned candy to minority children, including children, as part of an effort to target Jewish communities and minority children with poison in Brooklyn.
Prosecutors said Chkhikvishvili distributed the “Hater’s Handbook” and other materials starting in 2021, and that he traveled to Brooklyn in 2022 to encourage others to commit hate crimes and other acts of violence. They said that in 2023 he solicited an undercover FBI employee to carry out bombings and arsons “for the purpose of harming racial minorities, Jewish individuals and others,” and that the undercover worker was directed in 2024 “to target the Jewish community, Jewish schools, and Jewish children in Brooklyn with poison.”
Chkhikvishvili also admitted in his submission to the court that he wrote the “Haters Handbook,” saying, “I’m very ashamed authoring Haters Handbook, hoping one day it will disappear, I wish I never wrote it.” Prosecutors said the materials he distributed included detailed manuals about creating and mixing lethal poisons and gases, including ricin.
His lawyer, Zachary Taylor, asked for a five-year sentence, arguing that Chkhikvishvili’s mental health struggles since he was a teenager contributed to his conduct. Taylor told the court that Chkhikvishvili “fell under the spell of the violent extremist content” on social media, but has since reformed, according to the AP report.
Taylor also said Chkhikvishvili faced harsh conditions during nearly yearlong confinement in Moldova, where he was arrested in 2024 on an international warrant, as reflected in the lawyer’s statements summarized by the wire service.