The New Mexico compound where Siraj Ibn Wahhaj took his 3-year-old son, Abdul Ghani. (Screenshot: KRQE)
Five radical individuals received punishment for their involvement in a young child’s death and a plan to commit acts of violence against the United States.
Four of them — Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, his sisters Hujrah Wahhaj and Subhanah Wahhaj, and Subhanah’s husband, Lucas Morton — will spend the rest of their lives in the federal prison system.
The fifth, Jany Leveille, who believed she was a prophet, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. She had admitted guilt to planning to support terrorists and having a firearm while in the United States illegally. U.S. District Judge William Johnson during the sentencing on March 6 noted that Leveille had received treatment for acute schizophrenia after her 2018 arrest, underwent competency evaluations, and had started taking medication, according to The Associated Press. Originally from Haiti, Leveille faces deportation after serving her prison term.
Morton and Siraj Wahhaj were found guilty last year in a New Mexico federal court of planning to help terrorists, giving support to terrorists, and planning to kill a U.S. official or employee. Morton was also found guilty with the Wahhaj sisters of planning to kidnap and kill someone.
Officials stated that the group, led by Leveille, kidnapped Siraj Wahhaj’s 3-year-old son, Abdul Ghani, from the child’s mother in Georgia. They took him to a compound in Amalia, New Mexico.
“The group intended to use the child as a prop in a plan to eliminate supposed corrupt institutions, including the FBI, CIA, and U.S. military, and to kill those who did not convert and follow Leveille,” officials wrote. “The planning and training for this conspiracy took place at a heavily protected, specially constructed, militarized compound in Amalia.”
However, Abdul died. Leveille claimed a prophecy that he would resurrect on Easter, April 1, 2018, and in the DOJ’s words, “that he would lead the group to face society and kill those who did not join them.”
The belief was that he would return as Jesus.
But the 3-year-old did not return.
Leveille changed the prophecy, discussing the child coming back either around his birthday on Aug. 6, 2018, or as Subhanah Wahhaj’s soon-to-be-born child.
When officials searched the compound on the child’s birthday, they found his remains in an underground tunnel, according to federal officials. Investigators determined he had died on Christmas Eve 2017, they said.
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