Federal terrorism, kidnapping case goes to jury

The actions of four people on trial for kidnapping and terrorism charges became a federal crime when the group crossed state lines to conceal the whereabouts of a 3-year-old boy later found dead in a raid on their compound near Taos in 2018, prosecutors told jurors Thursday in closing arguments.

Jurors were expected to begin deliberations Friday in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque. Jury selection began Sept. 25 before Chief U.S. District Judge William P. Johnson. The trial is in its third week.

The group, including three siblings and a brother-in-law, hurriedly packed up their belongings in Atlanta on Dec. 5, 2017, and fled Georgia, driving first to Alabama, then to New Mexico, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberley Brawley told jurors.

The four knew that abducting the boy, Abdul Ghani Wahhaj, was wrong and put the severely-ill boy’s life in danger, Brawley said. “That’s why they hid, that’s why they ran, that’s why they lied,” she told jurors.

The compound was raided in August 2018 by law enforcement officers searching for 3-year-old Abdul Ghani, who was reported missing eight months earlier by the boy’s mother in Georgia.

Authorities found five adults and 11 children at the compound. Abdul Ghani’s decomposed remains were found in a 100-foot tunnel at the site.

Prosecutors allege the group kidnapped and transported Abdul Ghani to New Mexico, motivated by a belief he would be resurrected as “Isa,” a messiah who would lead an army against “corrupt institutions,” including government and law enforcement targets.

Abdul Ghani, who suffered severe health problems and seizures resulting from a complication at his birth, died in New Mexico on Dec. 24, 2017. Prosecutors allege the boy died while his father was performing a dangerous exorcism ritual on the boy.

“It was completely foreseeable that Abdul Ghani would die” if denied anti-seizure medication and subjected to hours of rigorous rituals, Brawley told jurors.

The boy’s father, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 45, Siraj’s sisters Hujrah Wahhaj, 42, and Subhanah Wahhaj, 30, and Subhanah’s husband, Lucas Morton, 45, all were indicted by a federal grand jury in March 2019 on charges including providing material support to terrorists, conspiracy to murder an officer or employee of the United States, and other charges.

Prosecutors allege the group organized firearm training at the compound that increased in intensity with the approach of Easter 2018 — the predicted day of Abdul Ghani’s resurrection.

Hujrah and Subhanah Wahhaj and Morton were also charged with kidnapping resulting in the death of Abdul Ghani. The boy’s father, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, was not charged with kidnapping because federal law prohibits a parent from being so charged.

An attorney representing Subhanah Wahhaj told jurors that his client was “in survival mode” while living at the compound and trying to care for her four children under difficult conditions.

“Subhanah’s involvement was not criminal,” Albuquerque attorney Ryan Villa told jurors. The woman attempted to escape and was punished for it by her family, he said. “Her fantasy was not to be there. She dreamed of getting out of there.”

Morton, Subhanah’s husband, controlled her finances and made all her decisions, essentially keeping her captive at the compound, Villa said in closing arguments.

Marshall Ray, an attorney for Hujruh Wahhaj, also argued that his client’s presence at the compound doesn’t provide proof that the woman participated in a conspiracy to wage war against the government.

“What did Hujrah add to the actions that went on here?” Ray said in closing argument. “She added nothing.”

A fifth co-defendant, Jany Laveille, a 40-year-old Haitian national, pleaded guilty in February to a federal firearms charge and conspiracy charge and faces 15 years in prison.

Prosecutors allege that the family came under the spell of Laveille, who wrote a book predicting Abdul Ghani’s return as a messiah.

Assistant District Attorney George Kraehe told jurors that the group “were a danger” and dismissed the idea that Subhanah and Wahaj could do nothing to alert their large, extended family to their whereabouts.

“They continued to run from the law and hide from the law for eight months” from December 2017 to August 2018, Kraehe told jurors. “They had every opportunity” to take action, he said. “They had the support they needed.”