A woman from New York City, who became a so-called ‘IS bride’ when she was just 18, faces up to ten years in federal prison after being found guilty of undergoing military training with Islamic State.
Halima Salman. Photo: US Department of Justice.
Selfies with the IS flag
Halima Salman, now 27 years old, was charged with undergoing weapons training with Islamic State in Syria. On Tuesday, she was found guilty by a federal jury in Brooklyn following three days of deliberation and a week-long trial.
The case marked the first time a woman had been brought to trial in the US, charged with joining IS, reports the New York Post. The jury was shown selfies Salman had taken with the terrorist organisation’s flag in the background.
Halima Salman. US Eastern District.
Joseph Nocella Jr., US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said the verdict holds Salman accountable:
– IS wreaked havoc in Syria and caused chaos across the world. Our office will continue to prosecute those who supported the terrorist organisation’s murderous regime.
From the US via Turkey to Syria
Salman, who was born in Brooklyn, testified in her own defence that her father had forced her to marry the IS fighter Abu Ali when she was 18. This happened after he moved the family to IS-controlled territory in 2016.
Salman told the jury that his father, who supported IS and was killed in an airstrike in 2018, first moved the family – including his mother and her eight siblings – to his home country of Turkey. He then tricked them into travelling into the clutches of the terrorist group in Syria.
Photo from the court: Screenshot from YouTube.
She testified that she spent two years in IS-controlled territory, followed by five years in a detention camp run by the Kurdish regime, which dismantled the terrorist group with US assistance.
Salman was arrested in 2024 at JFK Airport in Queens after she and nine other family members were brought back to the US in a US government operation to repatriate American citizens who were being held in detention camps.
She has been living with relatives in New Hampshire whilst on $500,000 bail. She faces a maximum sentence of ten years’ imprisonment for knowingly receiving military training from a terrorist organisation.
Qualified to carry a Kalashnikov
The prosecution claimed that, during her marriage, Salman voluntarily agreed to train with Nusaybah Katiba, an IS battalion exclusively for women.
The jury was shown footage of Salman brandishing an AK-47 assault rifle at her husband’s home in Syria.
IS also documented her firearms qualifications. Among the evidence was a document stating that she was qualified to carry a Kalashnikov.
Evidence: A photograph from Abu Ali’s mobile phone and its English translation. Photo: US Department of Justice.
Girl Scout from Brooklyn
Salman’s lawyers questioned the authenticity of the alleged IS training evidence, which was found on her husband Ali’s phone.
They also criticised the federal authorities for failing to present further evidence relating to her alleged IS training, including witness statements from people who had seen her training.
“This is a serious miscarriage of justice,” defence lawyer Mia Eisner-Grynberg told the jury during her closing speech on Thursday.
The defence sought to portray the alleged terrorist recruit as a former Girl Guide from Brooklyn, with a passion for sewing and needlework, who had already ‘been through hell and back’.
Her ex-husband, an IS fighter, is believed to be in an Iraqi prison, according to a police source.
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