BROOKLYN, New York — A federal jury in Brooklyn on Tuesday, October 27, convicted Halima Salman, 27, a US citizen and former Brooklyn resident also known as “Umm Khattab al-Muhajir”, of receiving military-type training from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization, in Syria, the US Department of Justice said.
Source: US Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs
Salman was convicted after a two-week trial before US District Judge Natasha C. Merle in the Eastern District of New York. The Associated Press reported that the jury began deliberating on Thursday and that Salman burst into tears on hearing the verdict, as did a relative in the front row. A sentencing date had not yet been set when the verdict was announced; AFP reported the offence can carry up to 10 years in prison.
How the case began: a family trip in 2016
As proven at trial, prosecutors said, in September and October 2016 Salman's parents travelled with her and her eight siblings out of the United States, ultimately destined for ISIS-controlled territory in Syria. AP reported that Salman was 17 when her father took her to Syria and arranged her marriage to an Islamic State fighter. AFP reported she travelled to an ISIS-controlled area in late 2016 or early 2017 via Russia and Turkey.
In late 2016 or early 2017 Salman was 18 years old and married to an ISIS fighter in Syria, where, prosecutors said, she voluntarily sought military-type training and received authorization to carry ammunition and an assault rifle from ISIS. She received a document certifying she had successfully completed that training, a copy of which was found on her husband's cellphone after it was recovered from the battlefield, the Justice Department said.
The evidence jurors saw — and the defence case
Also on her husband's device were photos depicting Salman with an ISIS flag in the background and a video showing her brandishing an AK-47 rifle, prosecutors said. AP reported jurors were also shown loving text messages she sent her husband, and that Assistant US Attorney Amanda Shami told the jury in closing: “The evidence shows that the defendant received military training from a violent, brutal, terrorist organization — an organization that is responsible for attacks across the world.”
The defence sought to portray Salman, now 27, as a teenager who was unwittingly trapped in Syria's civil war, first by her father and later by an extremist husband whose orders she had to follow, AP reported. Salman testified in her own defence. “You try to leave, it is death,” she said, according to AP, adding that she refused to be “married off” at age 18 and repeatedly tried to get a divorce. The jury's guilty verdict rejected the defence position that she never willingly received ISIS training.
Prosecutors: Salman pledged loyalty, voluntarily sought training at 18, was certified by an ISIS battalion and was photographed with its flag holding an AK-47. Defence: she was taken at 17 by her father, locked in, married off and could not leave on pain of death. The Brooklyn jury, after deliberating since Thursday, convicted on the training charge.
Capture, return and arrest
AFP reported that in early 2019 Salman was taken into custody by Syrian forces opposed to ISIS and placed in a relocation camp until 2024, when she returned to the United States and was arrested. The Justice Department case was investigated by the FBI's New York Field Office — the office whose leaders welcomed Tuesday's verdict.
What officials said after the verdict
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said ISIS had committed “mass executions, sexual slavery, and the systematic terrorizing of civilian populations” and that “there is simply no excuse for aligning with or receiving military training from an organization responsible for such suffering”. US Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. for the Eastern District of New York said: “With today's verdict, Salman is held accountable for joining forces with a terrorist organization.” FBI Counterterrorism Assistant Director Jarod Brown said it had been nearly a decade since Salman sought ISIS training and that “today justice has been served”, while FBI New York Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle said Salman “knowingly sought out terrorist training from ISIS in Syria” and subscribed to its belief system.
What happens next
Salman now awaits sentencing before Judge Merle; AP reported the judge left the courtroom to speak to jurors before setting a sentencing date, so no date was announced on Tuesday. Prosecutors in the case are Assistant US Attorneys Adam Amir and Amanda Shami for the Eastern District of New York, with assistance from Assistant US Attorney Andrew Reich, Paralegal Specialist Emily Woodruff and Trial Attorney Patrick Cashman of the National Security Division's Counterterrorism Section. For New York readers, the case closes a prosecution that began with a Brooklyn family's 2016 departure and ended, ten years later, in the same borough's federal courthouse.