US teen whose father arranged her marriage to Islamic State fighter convicted for weapons training
‘You try to leave, it is death,’ Halima Salman testified. Her mother and defense attorneys wept after the verdict 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. Prosecutors said Halima Salman, a US citizen, pledged loyalty to the extremist group and…
Halima Salman, a 27-year-old woman from New York, was convicted on Tuesday for receiving weapons training from the Islamic State group. According to prosecutors, Salman pledged loyalty to the extremist organization and participated willingly in its activities. The defendant testified that she was coerced into traveling to Syria at the age of 17, initially thinking it was a family visit to Turkey.
Once in Syria, she was taken by masked gunmen and held captive by the Islamic State group. She spent three months in their housing before reuniting with her family, who moved several times due to airstrikes. In 2018, her father died in an airstrike. Her marriage to an Islamic State fighter was arranged, and she was forced to do domestic labor.
After her father's death, she testified that she repeatedly tried to obtain a divorce, and her pleas were met with threats of death. Witnesses, including her mother and defense attorneys, wept after the verdict. The defense argued that Salman was a naive teenager trapped in the Syrian civil war, but prosecutors counterclaimed that she actively engaged with the terrorist organization, receiving military training and pledging allegiance to them.
The potential sentence for Salman is up to 10 years in prison, with sentencing currently set for February 2.
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