Brooklyn, New York Federal Jury Convicts Halima Salman of Receiving ISIS Training in Syria

A federal jury in Brooklyn convicted Halima Salman, 27, on Tuesday of receiving military-type training from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, known as ISIS, in Syria. The Justice Department said Salman, a United States citizen and former Brooklyn resident also known as Umm Khattab al-Muhajir, was convicted after a two-week trial before District Judge Natasha C. Merle.

The New York Post reported that jurors deliberated for three days and that the case was the first in which a woman faced trial in the United States on charges of joining ISIS. Salman faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison on the conviction for knowingly receiving military training from a terrorist organization, the Post reported.

What prosecutors proved at trial

The Justice Department said that in September and October 2016, Salman's parents traveled with her and her eight siblings out of the United States, ultimately bound for ISIS controlled territory in Syria. In late 2016 or early 2017, Salman was 18 years old and married to an ISIS fighter in Syria, where she voluntarily sought military-type training and received authorization to carry ammunition and an assault rifle from ISIS.

She received a document certifying that she had completed the training. A copy was found on her husband's cellphone after the phone was recovered from the battlefield, along with photos showing Salman with an ISIS flag in the background and a video of her holding an AK-47 rifle. The Center Square reported that the training was with the Khatiba Nusaybah, a military battalion of female ISIS soldiers.

The defense case

Salman testified in her own defense, the Post reported. She told jurors that her father had forced her to marry a militant fighter, Abu Ali, when she was 18, after he moved the family to ISIS controlled territory in 2016. She said her father, an ISIS supporter who was killed in a 2018 airstrike, first moved the family, including her mother and eight siblings, to his home country of Turkey before tricking them into traveling into Syria.

She testified that she spent two years in ISIS territory and then five years in a detention camp. The Post reported that Salman was arrested in 2024 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens after she and nine other members of her family were repatriated in a United States government effort to bring back American citizens held in the detention centers. She had been living with relatives in New Hampshire while out on a $500,000 bond with the case pending. Her lawyers questioned the authenticity of the alleged ISIS training certificate recovered from her husband's phone, the Post reported.

Officials respond to the verdict

"There is simply no excuse for aligning with or receiving military training from an organization responsible for such suffering," said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. "Today's verdict sends a clear message that those who support this death cult will be found and prosecuted."

"With today's verdict, Salman is held accountable for joining forces with a terrorist organization," said United States Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. for the Eastern District of New York. "Our Office will continue to prosecute those who supported its murderous reign."

The case was investigated by the FBI New York Field Office, the department said.