NYC Native Faces Trial as First Woman Accused of ISIS Membership in US
Prosecutors allege Halima Salman, 27, received weapons training from the terror group, while her defense questions evidence.
A New York City native who allegedly became an ISIS bride at 18 is now the first woman to stand trial in the United States on charges of being a member of the terror group. Halima Salman, 27, is accused by Brooklyn federal prosecutors of receiving training from ISIS, including instruction on using an AK-47 assault rifle.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Shami told jurors during closing statements that evidence shows Salman received training from a violent terrorist organization responsible for global attacks. Prosecutors presented footage of Salman wielding an AK-47 in her then-husband's home in Syria and stated she was allegedly trained by Nusaybah Katiba, a female-only ISIS battalion.
Prosecutors contend that Salman, who was born in Brooklyn, moved with her family to ISIS-controlled territory in Syria when she was a teenager. She was reportedly married at 18 to an ISIS member named Abu Ali. Investigators recovered a document from her husband's phone, purportedly from ISIS, stating she was qualified to carry a Kalashnikov rifle and ammunition, though her defense has questioned its authenticity.
Salman, who is out on a $500,000 bond and living with relatives in New Hampshire, testified in her own defense. She stated that she does not support ISIS, despite posing for a selfie in front of an ISIS flag. Salman described her time in Syria as oppressive and claimed her ISIS-supporting father, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in 2018, forced her into an arranged marriage with Ali. She recounted that the marriage took place in a room that resembled a garage, and she expressed fear and a bad feeling about the union.
Salman testified that she spent two years in ISIS territory before being held for five years in a detention center run by Kurdish forces. She was arrested in 2024 at JFK Airport after being repatriated to the U.S. along with nine family members as part of a State Department effort to bring American citizens home from Syrian detention centers.
Her defense attorneys have argued that the government has not provided sufficient evidence of her alleged training or what specific roles she was trained for. Salman faces a maximum sentence of 10 years if convicted of knowingly receiving military training from a terrorist organization. Her former ISIS husband is believed to be in an Iraqi jail. Her mother, Brandy Salman, has been attending the trial in support of her daughter. The trial was expected to conclude with closing arguments from the defense and jury deliberations by Thursday afternoon.