A New York woman whose father took her to Syria as a teenager and arranged her marriage to an Islamic State fighter was convicted on Tuesday of receiving weapons training from the militant group.
asserted
father → take → group
Prosecutors said Halima Salman, a US citizen, pledged loyalty to the extremist group and willingly participated in its activities.
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Salman → say → activities
Jurors were shown a video of her holding an assault rifle, a photo of her with the group’s flag and loving text messages she sent her husband.
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she → show → husband
Brooklyn-based US attorney Joseph Nocella Jr said in a statement that the verdict held Salman “accountable for joining forces with a terrorist organization”.
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Salman → base → organization
The defense 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.
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she → seek → orders
“You try to leave, it is death,” Salman testified.
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Salman → try → ?
She said she refused to be “married off” at age 18 and repeatedly tried to get a divorce.
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she → say → divorce
Salman, her mother and even her defense attorneys wept after hearing the verdict.
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Salman → weep → verdict
Still in tears, Salman and her mother later hugged each other across the railing between the audience and the courtroom well.
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Salman → hug → audience
Jurors, who began deliberating Thursday, had repeatedly indicated Monday that they were struggling to reach a unanimous decision.
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they → begin → decision
The members declined to comment as they left court after the verdict.
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they → decline → verdict
Salman’s lawyers also declined to comment.
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lawyers → decline → ?
They are asking the judge to set aside the verdict and acquit her, as federal law allows if a judge finds the evidence presented at a trial doesn’t legally support a conviction.
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evidence → ask → conviction
Such requests are often made but rarely granted.
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requests → make → ?
Salman’s conviction carries the potential for up to 10 years in prison.
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conviction → carry → prison
Sentencing currently is set for 2 February.
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Sentencing → set → February
The Islamic State group, which the US government designates as a terrorist group, seized large parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014 and declared the territory to be a caliphate.
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territory → designate → 2014
Despite its defeat in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later, the group still has sleeper cells that carry out deadly attacks in both countries.
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that → have → countries
Born in Brooklyn, Salman was 17 when her father took the family on what she thought was a trip to visit relatives in Turkey in 2017.
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she → bear → 2017
Instead, the van crossed into Syria, where masked gunmen surrounded them.
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gunmen → cross → them
Salman said she was frightened and confused and had no idea where her father was taking them.
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father → say → them
“I do blame my father for a lot of things that happened,” she testified.
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she → blame → things
She said she spent three months in housing run by the Islamic State group before reuniting with her family.
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she → say → family
They moved twice because their homes were hit by airstrikes.
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homes → move → airstrikes
On the first day of her marriage, Salman recalled, her husband told her: “Get up, stupid wife, it’s time for you to be a wife.”
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you → recall → her
She spent much of the marriage doing domestic labor for her husband and mother-in-law.
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She → spend → law
Her father died after being injured in an airstrike in 2018.
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father → die → 2018
Prosecutors insisted Salman was dishonest and had more agency in Syria than she claimed.
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she → insist → Syria
They got her to concede during cross-examination that she once sent a religious song about Osama bin Laden to her husband.
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she → get → husband
Prosecutors also disputed Salman’s account of a poor marriage, citing two loving text messages she sent to her husband.
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she → dispute → husband
“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,” assistant US attorney Amanda Shami told the jury in a closing argument last week.
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Shami → show → argument
Salman’s husband took a video of her holding an assault rifle, which prosecutors said she had been trained to use.
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she → take → which
When she testified, Salman said she was only complying with her husband’s request to carry the rifle.
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she → testify → rifle
She recalled that her last year of marriage was particularly harrowing, as constant bombings sometimes forced them to live in the streets, where she recalled seeing “dead bodies everywhere”.
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she → recall → streets
The couple eventually fled with other refugees in a truck, where she told her husband they were going to separate, and Salman testified that she never saw him again.
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she → flee → him
She was detained in Baghuz, Syria, in 2019 by forces opposed to the Islamic State group.
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She → detain → group
She was arrested by US authorities when she returned to New York in 2024.
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she → arrest → 2024
The Aporia
