Jury selection begins in New Mexico terrorism and kidnapping trial tied to toddler’s death

Jury selection began on Monday in the New Mexico terrorism and kidnapping trial of five family members accused of running a terror training camp and using malnourished children as pawns in a deadly scheme to target schools, law enforcement, and the military.

The charges against two men and three women stemmed from a 2018 raid on their desert compound by agents attempting to locate a missing 3-year-old boy who suffered from seizures. His mother told authorities in 2017 that his father, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, one of the defendants, had taken him to perform an exorcism because he thought the boy was possessed by the devil.

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During the raid on the Taos compound, agents found 11 children and five adults living in squalor and wearing rags. They also uncovered a cache of weapons and ammunition.

(AP Photo/Brian Skoloff, File)

The search of the compound, which was partly buried underground, also turned up the decomposing body of the missing toddler, Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, in an underground tunnel. The family members allegedly believed that after the boy died, he would be resurrected as Jesus Christ and provide instructions on who in the U.S. government and private institutions needed to be exterminated.

Prosecutors are expected to present evidence that Siraj Ibn Wahhaj and co-defendant Jany Leveille performed daily prayer rituals over the boy, even as he cried and foamed at the mouth after being deprived of medicine. The boy’s dead body was hidden and washed for months. An exact cause of death was never determined.

(Roberto E. Rosales/The Albuquerque Journal via AP, Pool, File)

The grandfather of the boy is Muslim cleric Siraj Wahhaj, who leads a New York mosque that has attracted radicals over the years, including a man who helped bomb the World Trade Center in 1993.

Authorities claimed the family was preparing for attacks against the U.S. government, though lawyers for those charged say the allegations are an overreach and anti-Muslim. Defense attorneys have also claimed prosecutors are putting up false narratives about alleged terrorist activities.

(AP Photo/Morgan Lee, File)

Leveille, Hujrah Wahhaj, Subhanah Wahhaj, and Lucas Morton face kidnapping charges. Siraj Ibn Wahhaj is not charged with kidnapping because the boy was his son. All five are charged with conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, providing material support to each other as possible terrorists amid tactical drills at the New Mexico compound. Morton, Leveille, and Siraj Ibn Wahhaj were also charged with conspiracy to kill U.S. government personnel.

The trial has been delayed multiple times over the past several years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Questions about the mental competency of the defendants also held up the trial.

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The Associated Press reported that possible jurors were being asked about their opinions on Islam, Muslims, and alternatives to Western medicine.

The trial is expected to last four weeks and include dozens of witnesses, Albuquerque-based U.S. District Judge William P. Johnson said.