Witnesses in Taos compound trial tell of poisonous relationships between family members

One of the 11 children removed from a ramshackle compound north of Taos in 2018 described for jurors Wednesday the anguished final hours of a 3-year-old boy whose decomposed body was found by law enforcement officers in a tunnel at the scene.

Jamil Louis-Jacques, now 18, said the boy died as Siraj Ibn Wahhaj performed an exorcism ritual that involved laying the sickly child on the floor in a trailer and placing his hand on the boy’s neck.

Wahhaj, 45, one of four people on trial on federal terrorism and conspiracy charges, performed the ritual daily on his son, Abdul Ghani Wahhaj, in the belief that the boy would be resurrected as a messiah once evil spirits had been driven from his body, Louis-Jacques told jurors in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque.

“He was foaming at the mouth and crying,” Louis-Jacques said of the boy. “Abdul Ghani seemed overly exhausted. The crying started to die out.”

Louis-Jacques said he couldn’t stay in the room. “I didn’t want to see it.”

Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, his sisters Hujrah Wahhaj and Subannah Wahhaj, both 40, 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.

Siraj Ibn Wahhaj was not charged with kidnapping because federal law prohibits a parent from being so charged. His sisters and brother-in-law are charged with kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping.

A fifth person, Jany Lavielle, 40, pleaded guilty in February to a federal firearms charge and one conspiracy charge and faces 15 years in prison. Lavielle is Siraj Ibn Wahhaj’s wife under Islamic law, but not under U.S. law, witnesses testified this week.

Attorneys for two people on trial contend that the government’s allegations of terrorism are “speculative” and based on a series of events that never occurred.

Louis-Jacques, Lavielle’s son, told jurors the family quickly packed and fled Atlanta in two vehicles after police showed up at Hujruh Wahhaj’s home to check on the welfare of the boy, severely ill at the time.

“It felt dark and rushed and surreal,” Louis-Jacques said of the family’s departure from Atlanta.

Once in New Mexico, Lavielle told the family that the boy would be resurrected as Isa, a messiah, who would lead an army led by Siraj Ibn Wahhaj to purge the world of unbelievers.

Lavielle “said (Abdul Ghani) was going to come back as Jesus,” Louis-Jacques told jurors. “He would do miracles and if they didn’t believe, they would be left behind to die.”

Hakima Ramzi, who was legally married to Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, gave emotional testimony about her desperate efforts to find her son, Adbul Ghani, who had severe health problems and required daily medication. Ramzi reported the boy’s disappearance to Georgia police, resulting in a court order that led to the raid on the compound.

Witnesses also told jurors about the family’s hurried departure to New Mexico in December 2017 after Siraj Ibn Wahhaj snatched his 3-year-old son from a motel room in Atlanta while the boy’s mother, Hakima Ramzi, was taking a shower.

Ramzi told jurors she reported her son’s disappearance to police. Prosecutors showed jurors a copy of a court order issued in December 2017 that ultimately led law enforcement to raid the Taos County compound about eight months later.

Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, who is acting as his own attorney, questioned his ex-wife Ramzi about the difficult birth of the child, requiring the couple to abandon their plan to have the child at home with help from a midwife. Throughout the cross-examination, the couple addressed each other in the third person.

“I told Siraj that I need to go to the hospital,” Ramzi told Siraj, who at first was opposed to going to the hospital but later called an ambulance, she testified.

Ramzi, who married Siraj in 2004 in her native Morocco, testified that she had been unable to have a child for the first 10 years of their marriage.

“Did Siraj blame you for not having a child?” Siraj asked his ex-wife. Ramzi testified that he eventually became frustrated by her inability to have a child.

Ramzi also testified that Siraj Ibn Wahhaj only stayed with her three months each year when he made trips from the United States to Morocco. Ramzi had moved to the U.S. in 2013, she said.