UPDATE
Oct 17, 2023 4:27 PM CDT
Jurors on Tuesday delivered split verdicts in a case that stemmed from the search for a 3-year-old boy who went missing from Georgia and was found dead hundreds of miles away at a squalid compound in northern New Mexico. Four members of the family were on trial. Three were found guilty on federal kidnapping charges. Two were convicted on related terrorism charges. The boy's father, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, was one of the two people found guilty of terrorism-related charges, the AP reports. His brother-in-law, Lucas Morton, was found guilty of the same charges, as well as conspiracy to commit kidnapping resulting in death and kidnapping resulting in death. The defendants, who are Muslim, argued that federal authorities targeted them because of their religion.
Aug 14, 2018 10:50 AM CDT
A 3-year-old boy whose remains were found at a New Mexico compound where children were allegedly trained to conduct school shootings died during an exorcism-like ritual, prosecutors say. Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, allegedly taken from his Georgia home late last year, suffered from seizures, and his father believed he was possessed by the devil, per court papers cited by the BBC. Some of the 11 hungry children found at the squalid compound during an early August raid described a days-long ritual "intended to cast out demonic spirits," which involved Siraj Wahhaj putting his hand on his son's head as he recited Koran verses, per the BBC and CNN. Per the FBI, Wahhaj's partner, Jany Leveille, was believed by the family to be able to communicate with God, and the family thought the boy would return "as Jesus" and ID targets for violent attacks, including law enforcement, per Reuters.
Wahhaj and Leveille are among five related adults facing child abuse charges. All but Wahhaj, who has a warrant against him for child abduction in Georgia, have been granted release on bail. Though authorities admitted finding weapons and ammunition in a vehicle carrying Wahhaj, Leveille, and seven children through Alabama in December—more weapons were found at the compound—State District Judge Sarah Backus on Monday said prosecutors failed to show the group posed a threat to the community. "The state alleges that there was a big plan afoot, but the state hasn't shown to my satisfaction, in clear and convincing evidence, what that plan was," she said. A defense lawyer added his clients were being unfairly treated as Black Muslims. "If these people were white and Christian, nobody would bat an eye over the idea of faith healing," he said. (More New Mexico stories.)
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