Halima Salman Trial: Jury Weighs Daesh Weapons Training Charges

Halima Salman Trial  : A US federal jury is discussing the case of Halima Salman, a Brooklyn native accused of getting weapons training from Daesh in Syria in 2018. Her defence claims she was transported to Syria against her will as a teenager, but prosecutors claim she had a larger part in the militant group than she has acknowledged.

Salman was 17 years old when her father took her family to Turkey in 2017. According to defence counsel Mia Eisner-Grynberg, he then put her in a van without indicating where they were going. When the vehicle reached Syria, it was surrounded by armed men.

The case centers on whether Salman voluntarily completed military training after coming in the conflict-torn country. She returned to the United States in 2024 and was arrested and accused for the alleged training, which authorities say occurred when she was 18.

Halima Salman Trial Centres on Her Time in Syria

Eisner-Grynberg told the jury that Salman had been duped by her father, who supported Daesh. According to the lawyer, the teen was stranded in Syria and spent three months confined to a room while bombs were routinely heard striking adjacent sites.

Salman’s father died as a result of injuries sustained during a 2018 explosion. Before his death, he planned for her to marry a Daesh warrior when she reached the age of 18, according to the defence.

Salman was detained by Daesh-opposed forces in Baghouz, Syria, January 2019. She eventually returned to the United States, where she was charged with weapons training.

Salman testified about her marriage throughout the trial, stating that it was difficult before she fled Syria and divorced her husband. Prosecutors contested that claim, citing two warm text messages she had sent him.

Amanda Shami, an Assistant US Attorney, also provided evidence that she said backed the government’s case. Prosecutors told the jury that Salman vowed fealty to Daesh and sent an image of herself with the group’s banner to her then-husband.

According to the prosecution, jurors also saw a short video made by her spouse showing Salman holding an assault gun she had been trained to operate. In her closing address, Shami contended that Salman’s testimony contradicted the facts given at the trial.

Halima Salman Trial Pits Defence Against Prosecutors

In closing statements, Eisner-Grynberg encouraged jurors to declare Salman not guilty. She claimed that, while the government was legitimate in examining her time in Syria, prosecutors had failed to prove that she wilfully received weapons training.

The defence lawyer stated that investigators had not uncovered anyone who observed Salman receiving such training. She also contended that the government had not proved Salman’s serious interest in the Islamic State, often known as Daesh.

Salman, now 27, wiped away tears with her shirt as her counsel spoke to the jurors. Eisner-Grynberg described her client as having faced significant difficulties after leaving New York, where she had participated in the Girl Scouts and practiced sewing and craft-making.

Shami, on the other hand, accused Salman of dishonesty and manipulation. The prosecution claimed that the evidence, which included an image, video, and text messages, contradicted the defence’s account of her time in Syria.

Daesh took territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014, establishing a self-proclaimed caliphate. By 2019, a US-led multinational coalition, involving Iraqi and Kurdish forces, as well as the Syrian Democratic Forces, had stripped the group of its geographical authority.

The jury’s decision will determine whether prosecutors proved the weapons-training accusation against Salman. The defence claims that her experiences in Syria do not show that she voluntarily trained with the group.