Muslim Terror Defendant Snubs Judge But…

By SUSAN NUNEZ

A Brooklyn federal court defendant accused of collaborating with ISIS refused on Thursday to attend a virtual hearing before the judge, arguing that Sharia Law forbade him to recognize the legality of the U.S. justice system but the judge issued a stinging rebuke of the defendant’s stance.

”I will set the next conference for April 22, 2021,” said Judge Steven M. Gold, “and I will have the Marshals bring him by force. He may not acknowledge the jurisdiction of the court but I acknowledge it and I will follow it, and that’s the way we’ll do it!”

According to investigators, in December 2013, Asainov now 43 and an U.S. citizen, traveled to Istanbul to gain entry into Syria where he joined the ISIS terrorist organization, became a sniper and rose in rank in charge of training other ISIS members in the use of weapons. He was brought back to the United States after his detention overseas by the Syrian Democratic Forces and was arrested and transferred to FBI custody July 2019.

A confidential informant working with the New York Police Department intelligence division had known Asainov and began communicating with him in August 2014 after finding him online. Asainov tried to recruit the informant to go to Syria and join ISIS, saying he’d help get him a job, housing, food and $50 a month, according to the complaint.

Asainov, refused to speak during his first arraignment In September 2019. His lawyer, Susan Kellman, pleaded not guilty on his behalf — saying Asainov wouldn’t do it himself “because he doesn’t recognize the American system of laws.” Yet, he has also failed to communicate completely with her only doing so through letters and never on a timely basis.

“He only communicates through letters and those are always in late response,”said the lawyer. The only other way I can communicate with him is through his mother who’ve I’ve arranged for him to speak with twice a month, but I don’t get any feed back from her.”