A federal jury in Brooklyn on Tuesday convicted Halima Salman, 27, a U.S. citizen and former Brooklyn resident, of receiving military-type training from ISIS in Syria, the Justice Department said. The verdict came after a two-week trial before U.S. District Judge Natasha C. Merle. DOJ says Salman was also known as Umm Khattab al-Muhajir and trained with the Khatiba Nusaybah, a military battalion made up of female ISIS members.
According to DOJ, the trial showed that in September and October 2016 Salman's parents left the United States with her and her eight siblings, bound for ISIS-controlled territory in Syria. In late 2016 or early 2017, at age 18, she was married to an ISIS fighter there. DOJ says she voluntarily sought military-type training and received authorization from ISIS to carry ammunition and an assault rifle.
Prosecutors said she received a document certifying that she completed the training. A copy was found on her husband's cellphone after it was recovered from the battlefield, DOJ says. The same device held photos of Salman with an ISIS flag behind her and a video of her brandishing an AK-47 rifle.
Ground News reports that her father moved the family from Brooklyn to Syria in 2017 under the guise of visiting relatives, then arranged her marriage to an ISIS fighter named Abu Ali when she turned 18. The charge could bring up to 10 years in prison, Ground News reports.
U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. of the Eastern District of New York said his office will keep prosecuting those who supported ISIS. Jarod Brown, assistant director of the FBI's Counterterrorism Division, said nearly a decade has passed since Salman sought the training. The FBI's New York Field Office investigated, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Adam Amir and Amanda Shami are prosecuting the case.
