Abduction and terrorism trial after boy found dead at New Mexico compound opens with mom’s testimony

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Federal prosecutors introduced tearful testimony Tuesday from the mummy of a sickly infant who was once whisked clear of his Georgia house by way of family members with out her permission to a far flung barren region encampment in northern New Mexico the place he died.

Four members of the family, together with the boy’s aunts, are dealing with kidnapping or terrorism fees, or each, that stem from an August 2018 raid in search of the 3-year-old boy at a squalid encampment close to the Colorado line. Authorities mentioned they found the suspects residing with 11 hungry youngsters with out working water at the encampment encircled by way of berms of tires with an adjoining taking pictures vary the place weapons and ammunition have been seized.

The badly decomposed frame of Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj was once eventually found in an underground tunnel at the compound.

Abdul-Ghani’s mom, Hakima Ramzi, recounted her love and devotion to a contented son who lived with serious developmental disabilities and common seizures — and her surprise when husband, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, and his sibling accused her of casting spells at the boy.

“He accused me of black magic, I’m not that type of a woman to practice black magic,” mentioned Ramzi, a local of Morocco who spoke in damaged English.

Ramzi mentioned her denials fell on deaf ears. She mentioned her husband and his sister traveled in a foreign country to be informed extra about selection therapeutic in keeping with the Quran.

After she demanded a divorce, Ramzi mentioned that Siraj Ibn Wahhaj took their son to a park and by no means returned. She attempted unsuccessfully, she mentioned, to trace them by way of telephone prior to turning to police and then kid protecting services and products.

Authorities allege the circle of relatives engaged in firearms and tactical coaching in preparation for assaults in opposition to the federal government, tied to an obvious trust by way of some that the boy could be resurrected as Jesus Christ and then give an explanation for which corrupt executive and non-public establishments wanted be eradicated.

Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, the boy’s father, alongside with his sisters Hujrah and Subhanah Wahhaj, and the latter’s husband, Lucas Morton, have been charged with conspiracy to dedicate an offense in opposition to the United States, amongst different fees. Morton and Siraj Ibn Wahhaj have been additionally charged with conspiracy to kill U.S. executive body of workers.

Because a reason behind demise was once by no means decided federal prosecutors opted for kidnapping fees, however Siraj Ibn Wahhaj is the one one now not but charged with that as a result of his felony standing because the boy’s father.

Prosecutors plan to give proof that Siraj Ibn Wahhaj and his spouse Jany Leveille, a Haitian nationwide, took Abdul-Ghani in December 2017 to resettle in New Mexico, the place they carried out day-to-day prayer rituals over the boy as he cried and foamed at the mouth. They additionally allege the kid was once disadvantaged of medicine as his well being failed. Leveille was once to begin with charged with kidnapping and terrorism-related fees however she has agreed to simply accept a discounted sentence on guns fees. She has now not gave the impression at the trial.

Defense legal professionals for sisters Hujrah and Subhanah Wahhaj informed the jury Tuesday that terrorism allegations in opposition to the moms and New York City natives are in large part in keeping with a fantastical diary written by way of Leveille about her trust that Abdul-Ghani could be resurrected.

“It’s all completely hypothetical,” mentioned Donald Kochersberger who’s representing Hujrah Wahhaj. “It’s all just a fantasy.” He mentioned the circle of relatives’s hardscrabble efforts to safe elementary refuge in a harsh, far flung surroundings are being misrepresented by way of prosecutors as terrorism.

He added that Abdul-Ghani’s demise in a while after arriving in New Mexico was once a surprising and unhappy result for a boy with fragile well being however that what the federal government construes as kidnapping “really is just a family traveling together to New Mexico.”

Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, who declined his right to an attorney, warned jurors that “the government will attempt to portray the closeness of family as terrorism.”

He urged the jurors to make up their own minds about the credibility of testimony gathered by the FBI from interviews with children.

Attorneys for the defendants have said previously that their clients would not be facing terrorism-related charges if they were not Muslim. The grandfather of the missing boy is the Muslim cleric Siraj Wahhaj, who leads a well-known New York City mosque that has attracted radicals over the years, including a man who later helped bomb the World Trade Center in 1993.

The elder Wahhaj watched the trial Tuesday afternoon from the courtroom gallery.

“I’m here with an open mind,” he mentioned. “We’re told in my religion to stand up for justice even if it’s against your own family.”