A former US stockbroker has been convicted of being an Islamic State sniper and coaching dozens of different long-range shooters for the phobia group.
Ruslan Maratovich Asainov, 46, is a Kazakh-born US citizen who left his household in Brooklyn in December 2013 earlier than travelling to Syria simply as IS got here to energy.
The trial is the most recent in a collection of instances in opposition to folks accused of leaving their nations to affix Islamic State.
Asainov’s former spouse advised the court docket that he transformed to Islam in 2009 and later resigned from his job as a dealer earlier than he began to observe radical sermons on-line.
The prosecution had constructed the case largely on Asainov’s personal phrases in messages, emails, recorded cellphone calls and an FBI interview.
Prosecutors mentioned fought he fought in quite a few battles as a sniper for IS and instructed practically 100 different militants in taking pictures methods.
In his closing assertion, prosecutor Douglas Pravda advised a court docket in Brooklyn, New York, that “people died as a result of the defendant’s conduct. It is time to hold him accountable”.
Asainov didn’t testify and advised the court docket he was “not part of this process”.
‘Very warped view’
Asainov’s attorneys didn’t dispute he went to Syria and was affiliated with IS, however they argued his accounts had been boasts and didn’t show his conduct led to anybody’s dying.
Sabrina Shroff advised the jury it was clear her shopper had a “very warped view” however that they should not “confuse his views with what is needed to convict him beyond a reasonable doubt”.
The trial heard Asainov had despatched pictures of himself in camouflage gear with a rifle, in addition to footage of the bloodied our bodies of males whom he claimed to have fought.
After his arrest, he defiantly declared in court docket that he was an “Islamic State citizen, not a United States citizen”.
Read extra from Sky News:
Man executed for killing girlfriend and three youngsters
Baldwin’s authorized workforce seeks to disqualify prosecutor on Rust case
Jail officers mentioned additionally they found a hand-drawn model of the group’s flag in his cell.
He advised his mom in a name recorded on the power’s telephones that her son “doesn’t exist anymore” and that he would “be fighting until the end”.
Jurors discovered Asainov responsible of offences together with offering and trying to supply assist to a terror organisation.
His actions led to a minimum of one dying, the jury concluded, which might imply he faces life in jail.
He shall be sentenced on 7 June.
Source: information.sky.com”