Jury deliberates in trial of woman charged with IS military training

Summarised from 2 outlets · Updated 22 Oct, 21:32 · Archive

A New York woman is on trial for allegedly receiving weapons training from Islamic State in Syria.

A jury is deliberating in the trial of Halima Salman, a U.S. citizen born in Brooklyn, charged with willingly undergoing military training with the Islamic State in 2018 when she was 18. She was arrested in 2024 after returning to the United States.

Salman's lawyer, Mia Eisner-Grynberg, told the jury Thursday that Salman was tricked by her father into travelling to Syria. Her father took the family to Turkey in 2017, then put her in a van without saying where they were going and drove into Syria, where the van was surrounded by men with guns. She spent three months locked in a room while bombs struck nearby targets. Her father, an Islamic State sympathizer, died in a bombing in 2018 but had arranged for her to marry a member of the group when she turned 18. She was detained in Baghouz, Syria, in 2019 by forces opposed to the Islamic State.

Eisner-Grynberg described Salman as having 'been through hell and back', noting she had been in the Girl Scouts and studied sewing and craft making before leaving New York. Prosecutors, however, insist Salman had more agency in Syria than she claims, disputing the defence narrative presented in closing arguments.

How it is being reported

• Jury deliberates in trial of New Yorker who became a teen bride to an Islamic State fighterA jury is deliberating in the trial of a New York woman charged with getting military training from the Islamic State group in Syria.Clickorlando · 22 Oct, 19:29
• Jury deliberates in trial of New Yorker who became a teen bride to an Islamic State fighterA jury is deliberating in the trial of a New York woman charged with getting military training from the Islamic State group in Syria.News4Jax · 22 Oct, 19:29

In this story: Halima Salman · Mia Eisner-Grynberg · Islamic State · Brooklyn · Syria · Turkey

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