He had been brought from the battlefields of Syria to a New York lockup, a U.S. citizen charged with serving as a sniper and weapons trainer for the Islamic State group.
And even in jail, Ruslan Maratovich Asainov kept a makeshift version of the militants' black flag right above the desk in his cell, according to trial testimony this week.
"What's the big deal? It's mine. It's religious," then-jail lieutenant Judith Woods recalled him saying when she went to confiscate the hand-drawn image in 2020.
Years after the fall of the extremist group's self-proclaimed Islamic caliphate, the trial is a reminder of the enduring and far-reaching fallout of a war that drew tens of thousands of foreign fighters to Syria and Iraq. Their home countries are still contending with what should become of them.
Jurors, who are expected to start deliberating as soon as Monday, have gotten a refresher course IS's gruesome rule and its sophisticated, social-media-savvy recruitment of distant supporters to come and take up arms. Prosecutors say Asainov did so and rose through the group's ranks, eventually becoming an "emir" who taught other members to use weapons.
In post-arrest videos shown at his trial, he gives his occupation as "a sniper" to FBI agents and readily tells them that he provided instruction in everything from rifle maintenance to ballistics to adjusting for weather effects -- and, of course, "how to actually pull the trigger."
"Oh, it's a long lesson," he explains, sitting on a bed in a room where he was being held. "I would give, like, a three-hour lesson, just on that, just to pull the trigger."
Jurors have seen photos alleged to be of Asainov in camouflage, aiming a rifle, and the handmade flag that Woods said she took from his cell. Witnesses have included his flabbergasted ex-wife, who testified that he morphed from a Brooklyn family man into a zealot. She said he weighed in from Syria to complain about their daughter donning a Halloween costume and sent a photo of the bodies of what he said were comrades killed in a battle, according to the Daily News of New York.
Asainov chose not to testify. One of his lawyers, Susan Kellman, has said he went to Syria because he wanted to live under Islamic law. He has pleaded not guilty -- a plea that Kellman entered on his behalf because, she said, he didn't abide by the American legal system.
Nonetheless, the 46-year-old Asainov listened politely to government witnesses on a day this week, alternately stroking his beard and folding his arms across his chest.
IS fighters seized portions of Iraq and Syria in 2014 and declared the establishment of a so-called Islamic caliphate there, at a time when Syria was already convulsed by civil war. Fighting laid waste to multiple cities before Iraq's prime minister declared the caliphate vanquished in 2017; the extremists lost the last of their territory two years later, though sporadic attacks persist even now.
During the height of the fighting, as many as 40,000 people from 120 countries showed up to join in, according to the United Nations. There is no comprehensive U.S. statistic on Americans among those foreign fighters; a 2018 report by George Washington University's Program on Extremism found at least 64 who had joined jihadist fighting in Iraq and Syria since 2011.
Since IS's defeat, some foreign members and their families have lingered in detention facilities in Syria because their countries refused to take them back. Other accused foreign fighters have returned to their countries, including some who were prosecuted.
Recent U.S. cases include a Kansas mother who led an all-female IS battalion, a Minnesota man who served in a battalion that prepared foreign fighters for suicide attacks in Europe, and a Detroit-area convicted this week of training with and then spending more than two years with the group.
Born in Kazakhstan, Asainov is a naturalized U.S. citizen. He lived in Brooklyn starting in 1998, married and had a child.
Then he flew to Istanbul on a one-way ticket in December 2013 and made his way to Syria to join what he later described in a message as "the worst terrorist organization in the world that has ever existed," authorities say.
"You heard of ISIS," he said in another text message in January 2015, according to prosecutors' court filings. "We will get you."
By that April, Asainov told an acquaintance -- in fact, a government informant -- that he'd been fighting in Syria for about a year, according to court papers. They say that in various exchanges, he urged the informant to come to Syria and help with IS's media operations, asked for $2,800 to buy a rifle scope, and sent photos of himself with fatigues and rifle, saying he "didn't mean to show off" but was showing what was "just normal" in his new life.
Authorities announced in July 2019 that U.S.-backed forces in Syria had captured Asainov and turned him over to the FBI.
He faces charges that include providing material support to a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison.
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Turkiye鈥檚 air force struck Kurdish militant targets in Iraq and Syria on Wednesday in apparent retaliation for an attack at a key state-run defence company that killed five people and wounded more than a dozen others.
The Justice Department warned Elon Musk鈥檚 America PAC in recent days that his US$1 million sweepstakes to registered voters in swing states may violate federal law, people briefed on the matter told CNN.
If you鈥檙e a regular visitor to Walt Disney World, your annual passes are going to cost you more. The resort in Orlando, Fla., hiked prices on all four levels of its passes on Wednesday.
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Evan Mobley had 25 points and eight rebounds to lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 136-106 rout in Toronto's home opener on Wednesday as the Raptors also lost starting point guard Immanuel Quickley.
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An increased risk of fire has prompted the recall of thousands of Honda hybrid vehicles in Canada.
A senior executive for Volkswagen in China has been deported for allegedly using cocaine and marijuana while on vacation in Thailand, according to Chinese authorities and German media reports.
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A meteor lit up our region's sky last night 鈥 with a large fireball shooting across the horizon over Lake Erie at around 7:00 p.m.
Residents of Ottawa's Rideauview neighbourhood say an aggressive wild turkey has become a problem.
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Hortense Anglin was the oldest graduate to make her way across the platform at York University's Fall Convocation ceremony this week. At the age of 87, she graduated with an Honours degree in Religious Studies.
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A new report suggests that Canadians' exposure to a radioactive gas is increasing, putting millions of people at a higher risk of developing lung cancer.
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Quebec鈥檚 Bureau of Independent Investigations (BEI) is investigating after police in Gatineau, Que. shot and killed a man who allegedly stabbed an officer during an investigation.
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Southey RCMP say drivers should expect delays on Highway 6 Wednesday night after a serious crash.
Regina police says officers will provide an update Thursday in its search for the suspect of a homicide that took place in the city during the summer of 2023.
Detective Robert Hofstetter examined Erb鈥檚 home after her death and came to several conclusions based on the blood stains he found there.
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Corrections Service Canada has confirmed a women鈥檚 prison in Kitchener is in lockdown.
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Canada's discount airline is suspending operations to and from Saskatoon.
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The president and CEO of New Brunswick-based Covered Bridge Potato Chips is taking an 'extended leave of absence' after being charged with domestic violence this past weekend.
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Under tough cross-examination at the London courthouse on Wednesday, Rachel Johnson, 21, was asked a number of times why there was a delay in calling 911
OPP have confirmed that a transport truck driver crashed into a historic home just southeast of London this morning.
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In the Town of Tecumseh, residents and athletes alike are facing a pickleball problem that may prove costly.
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The Windsor Jewish Federation responded on Wednesday evening to a decision by the board of governors for the University of Windsor concerning its agreements with pro-Palestinian protesters.
Two B.C. RCMP officers won鈥檛 face criminal charges for their use for force that left a man who had been arrested for public intoxication with a concussion, a torn shoulder and a chunk of his hair missing 鈥 but they could face professional discipline.
When 16-year-old Kaydence Bourque was struck and killed in a crosswalk on Cedar Hill Cross Road in Saanich in 2021, the community was shaken to the core.
A man who fired at least 19 gunshots at an RCMP detachment in northern British Columbia, narrowly missing officers inside, has won a reduced prison sentence from the province's highest court, which ruled the sentencing judge failed to fully weigh the man's mental illness at the time.
Dave Lindsey began growing giant pumpkins to bring a bit of magic to his grandkids' Halloween.
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Nearly two years after a man was stabbed to death in downtown Kelowna, RCMP have made an arrest in the case.
Graduate students looking to become mental-health professionals will have more opportunities to study in the University of Lethbridge鈥檚 Master of Education Counselling Psychology program.
A dazzling light display is making its return to Lethbridge this holiday season.
As part of anniversary celebrations, the City of Lethbridge is inviting the community to see VisitLethbridge.com Arena like they never have before.
The lack of 24-hour public washrooms has been a long-standing issue in the Sault, especially considering the rise in homelessness.
The union representing the fire rangers with the Ministry of Natural Resources says money won鈥檛 fix the systemic problems in the workplace.
Rallies by a group called Voices Against Violence took place across the country on Monday, including Sault Ste. Marie.
Investigators found the remains of a 77-year-old American man on Wednesday at the scene of a fire that destroyed a hotel in western Newfoundland earlier on the weekend.
Police in western Newfoundland say a 77-year-old man visiting the province from Kansas is missing after a fire at a hotel in Deer Lake, N.L.
At 2 p.m. on Thursday, the scene at the Lions Club in Clarenville, N.L., rivalled any rowdy St. John's bar that thumps with music late on a weekend night.
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