A former U.S. soldier-turned-mercenary in Ukraine was extradited to Florida to face federal prosecution for a double homicide — three years after claiming the government was targeting him as a "right-wing extremist."
During an interview with ABC News that was released in February 2022, Craig Lang reportedly denied any involvement in the deadly 2018 robbery of Danny and Deana Lorenzo, for which he and an Army buddy were indicted the following year.
But Lang, who reportedly joined far-right Ukrainian militias including Right Sector and the Azov Battalion, said he believed "that the United States government intends to prosecute me and other veterans of this conflict here for our service in Ukraine."
"A lot of the media goes around with saying that I'm a right-wing extremist, that I'm, you know, a Nazi or any of these things," he said. "And I feel that I'll be persecuted as being a right-wing extremist or a far-right person, even though I'm not."
ABC said it interviewed Lang in the spring of 2021 after finding him "living openly" in Kyiv, Ukraine, "with his new Ukrainian wife and child."
The network also displayed a photo it said showed Lang standing beside a Right Sector member who was making a Nazi salute.
Lang, 34, pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Fort Myers, Florida, and was ordered held without bail, according to court records.
In addition to the slayings of the Lorenzos, who were robbed of $3,000 while trying to buy firearms in a parking lot in Estero, he faces charges in North Carolina and Arizona, where the Justice Department alleges he used a stolen identity to obtain a passport and a Mexican visa, respectively.
Lang's court-appointed lawyer, Bjorn Brunvand, declined to comment beyond saying that Lang had "entered a not guilty plea."
Lang's codefendant, former soldier Alex Jared Zwiefelhofer, 27, was convicted by a jury in March and is awaiting sentencing, according to the Justice Department.
