(The Hill) — Steven Nikoui, the father of a Marine killed during the U.S. withdrawal of Afghanistan, was arrested Thursday evening for shouting from a House gallery at President Biden during his State of the Union address.
Nikoui, 51, was arrested for disrupting Biden’s speech around 10:15 p.m., U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) confirmed.
“Our officers warned him to stop and when he did not, the man was removed from the House Galleries,” USCP said in a statement.
He was arrested for crowding, obstructing or incommoding, said USCP, which added that “disrupting the Congress and demonstrating in the Congressional Buildings is illegal.”
Nikoui was invited to attend the annual address by Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), who served in the Army for more than 12 years. While deployed in Afghanistan, Mast worked as a bomb disposal expert, where he lost both his legs in an explosion, his congressional website said.
Mast posted online ahead of the address, saying he was “honored” to have Nikoui as his guest.
“He is the father of Marine Lance Corporal Kareem Nikoui, who was KIA due to Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan,” Mast said online. “Joe Biden may try to turn the page on Afghanistan after his incompetence cost American lives, but NOT ON MY WATCH.”
During Biden’s speech, Nikoui could be heard yelling “Abbey Gate.”
A bomb at the Abbey Gate at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul went off on Aug. 26, 2021, killing 13 U.S. service members, including Kareem Nikoui, and at least 170 Afghan civilians.
The blast was carried out by a single suicide bomber and claimed by ISIS in Khorasan in the final chaotic days of the United States’ evacuation from Afghanistan. Biden and his administration have received heavy criticism over the withdrawal.
Following Nikoui’s arrest, Mast called out Biden.
“He was arrested because he cried out to Joe Biden to remember his son,” Mast wrote. “Joe Biden has never honored those killed at the Abby Gate and still hails the catastrophic withdrawal as a success!”
Last August, on the two-year anniversary of the explosion, Biden released a statement to mourn the lives of the service members and civilians who were killed in the “horrific terrorist attack.”