Halima Salman Faces 10 Years for ISIS Training in Syria

A federal jury on Tuesday found Halima Salman guilty of knowingly receiving military-style training from ISIS while living in Syria, concluding an emotional terrorism case that had drawn intense attention.

The prosecution was believed to be the first U.S. federal trial involving a woman accused of joining ISIS.

Salman, who also used the name “Umm Khattab al-Muhajir,” is a 27-year-old U.S. citizen and former Brooklyn resident. She could receive up to 10 years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 2.

Federal prosecutors said Salman’s parents took her and her eight siblings out of the United States in 2016 before bringing the family to territory in Syria controlled by ISIS.

The Justice Department said Salman was 18 when she married an ISIS fighter and voluntarily pursued military-style instruction from the terrorist group.

Prosecutors argued that she swore allegiance to ISIS and willingly took part in the organization’s activities.

ISIS authorized Salman to carry an assault rifle and issued her a certificate confirming that she had completed the training, officials said. The document was later found on her husband’s cellphone.

Jurors saw video showing Salman with an assault rifle, as well as a photograph of her beside an ISIS flag and text messages in which she expressed support to her husband.

“With today’s verdict, Salman is held accountable for joining forces with a terrorist organization,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. of the Eastern District of New York said in a statement.

“ISIS ravaged Syria and caused havoc across the globe; our Office will continue to prosecute those who supported its murderous reign,” Nocella said.

After the verdict was read at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, Salman began crying and was comforted by members of her defense team.

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Her mother arrived after the court learned that jurors had reached a verdict and was later seen crying on her knees in the gallery. Several members of Salman’s defense team were visibly shaken as well, including lead attorney Mia Eisner-Grynberg.

The guilty verdict followed repeated signs of difficulty among the jurors. They had earlier told the court they were struggling to reach a unanimous decision and were sent back twice to continue deliberations.

Salman’s lawyers presented her as a teenager who was pulled into Syria’s civil war first by her father and later by her husband.

Salman, who was born in Brooklyn, testified that she thought her family was going to Turkey to visit relatives. Instead, she said, her father took them across the border and into Syria.

“I do blame my father for a lot of things that happened,” she told the jury.

She also testified that she did not want to be “married off” at 18 and had attempted to obtain a divorce.

“You try to leave, it is death,” Salman testified.

Salman testified that she eventually fled with other refugees and separated from her husband.

She was detained in Baghouz, Syria, in 2019 by forces fighting ISIS and was arrested by U.S. authorities after returning to New York in 2024.

Salman’s attorneys have asked the judge to set aside the verdict and acquit her, arguing that the evidence presented at trial was legally insufficient to sustain the conviction, according to The Associated Press.