Brooklyn Woman Convicted: Federal Jury Finds Her Guilty of ISIS Training Charges

Halina Salman stood in the Brooklyn Federal Courtroom on Monday, wearing a light purple hijab and a pink hoodie, as a federal jury returned a guilty verdict. The jury found her guilty of receiving military training from the Islamic State while in Syria. The verdict concluded a two-week trial in which Salman testified that she was forced into marriage as a teenager. She now faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.

Salman, 27, began to cry as the jurors left the room to deliberate their final decision. Her mother, Brandy Salman, sat in the front row holding a family member while she wept. The conviction rests on a single count against Salman. Jurors reached their decision four days after Salman took the stand to present her defense.

Prosecutors argued that Salman was a willing participant in the group. They described her as a devoted bride who trained with the Nusaybah Khatiba, an all-female brigade. Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Shami told the jury that Salman made conscious choices to support the organization. Shami pointed out that after Salman surrendered to coalition forces in Syria, she used her married name and claimed to be born in Germany rather than the United States.

Shami emphasized the family ties to the group. “The defendant’s father was an ISIS fighter. Her husband was an ISIS fighter. And the defendant herself wanted to be a foreign fighter. She named herself ‘foreign fighter,’” Shami said. The prosecutor added that the defendant made deliberate choices to support a violent organization.

The defense team argued that the evidence of training was insufficient. They pointed to a photo of a handwritten document on her husband’s phone that authorized her to receive a weapon. They also cited a 20-second video taken by her husband showing her handling and drilling with an AK-47. Prosecutors noted that Salman’s ISIS name, or kunya, included a phrase that translates to “foreign fighter.”

Salman testified that her father tricked her and her family into getting into a van he said would take them to visit relatives. She stated that she fell asleep during the ride and woke up in Syria surrounded by masked men. They urged her to hurry into a madafa, a crowded guest house where women and children were held. She said she was married to a stranger after her 18th birthday for a $5,000 payment.

Defense attorney Mia Eisner-Grynberg called the case a grave miscarriage of justice during closing arguments. “Halima has spent her last 10 years surviving ISIS, and the (detention) camps, and this prosecution,” Eisner-Grynberg said. She challenged the government for not bringing a single witness who attended a training session in 2018. Salman told the jury she never received any training and never saw the document purporting she had.

The trial took place in Brooklyn Federal Court. Salman’s testimony detailed her life in what she described as marital captivity. She explained that she sent selfies to her husband using a phone with no cellular or internet connection, communicating only through a Bluetooth app. She said she tried to please him on bad days to give herself a decent day.