New Mexico compound suspects can be freed on bond, judge says
A New Mexico judge on Monday granted bond to five adults accused of child abuse on a compound outside of Taos.
Judge Sarah Backus granted an unsecured appearance bond to the defendants, meaning they can be released under certain conditions, and must pay bond if they don't follow court orders, defense lawyer Aleksandar Kostich said.
The defendants were taken into custody after an August 3 raid on their compound where 11 malnourished children were found.
Siraj Wahhaj, and his relatives -- sisters Hujrah Wahhaj and Subhannah Wahhaj, wife Jany Leveille, and brother-in-law Lucas Morten -- each face 11 counts of child abuse. They have pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors alleged the defendants came to New Mexico from Georgia with their children to perform religious rituals on one of Siraj Wahhaj's sons, who suffered from seizures. The family believed that after demons were expelled from the boy's body, he would become Jesus and direct the adults to commit "violent acts" against the government, prosecutors alleged.
A teenager rescued from the compound said that the little boy, Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, died in one of those rituals, an FBI agent testified. Remains of a young boy found on the compound are awaiting positive identification.
The judge said she was troubled by the apparent death of the child. But after hours of testimony, she said prosecutors failed to prove the five adult defendants presented a danger to the community or to the surviving children, who are now in state custody.
"The state alleges there was a big plan afoot but the state has not shown to my satisfaction by clear and convincing evidence what in fact that plan was," Backus said. "The state wants me to make a leap, and it's a large leap. And that would be to hold people in jail without bond based on -- again -- troubling facts but I didn't hear any choate plan that was being alleged by the state."
'This was not a camping trip'
Prosecutors alleged the family came to New Mexico from Georgia to prepare for Abdul-Ghani's resurrection as Jesus. With a large arsenal in tow, they set up a firearms range and trained at least two of the older children in weapons handling so they could assist the adults in getting rid of "corrupt" institutions, such as law enforcement, the education system and financial institutions, prosecutor Timothy Hasson said.
"This was not a camping trip and this was not a simple homesteading, the kind that many people do in New Mexico," Hasson said. "The evidence as a whole suggests that this family was on a mission. And it was a violent one, and it was a dangerous one. And it sheds a lot of light for the court in terms of reasonable inferences of future dangerous conduct, which is the point of this hearing."
But a lawyer for one of the defendants said the evidence might be viewed in a different light if the defendants were "white Christians" instead of black Muslims.
"If these were white people of a Christian faith who owned guns, that's not a big deal because there's a Second Amendment right to own firearms in this country," Thomas Clark said.
"If these were white Christians, faith healing is of no consequence because we have freedom of religion in this country. But they look different and they worship differently from the rest of us."
Accounts of boy's death emerge
The search for Abdul-Ghani led authorities to the compound. His father, Siraj Wahhaj, was wanted on a warrant from Georgia issued on suspicion of abducting his son.
The boy's mother says she last saw him in Jonesboro, Georgia, in November, when Siraj Wahhaj said he was taking their son to the park. The arrest warrant was issued for Siraj Wahhaj in December.
The boy suffered from seizures, requiring constant care and medical attention, his mother, Hakima Ramzi, previously told CNN. After a trip to Saudi Arabia in October 2017, Siraj Wahhaj said he wanted to stop giving his son medication and perform rituals to "cast demonic spirits" out of his son's body, another person told investigators, according to prosecutor John Lovelace.
In interviews with law enforcement after the raid, the children shared information about his apparent death, FBI agent Travis Taylor testified.
Imam says he helped lead police to his son on New Mexico compound
According to one of the children, the family arrived in New Mexico sometime in January. They came at the instruction of Leveille, who the family believed was receiving messages from God through the angel Gabriel, Taylor testified.
When they arrived in New Mexico, Leveille told the family to continue performing rituals on Abdul-Ghani to expel demons from his body, Taylor said.
In the rituals, Abdul-Ghani's father recited verses from the Quran as he held his hand on the boy's forehead, Taylor said. According to the children, during one of those rituals, Abdul-Ghani passed out and his heart stopped beating, the officer testified.
His body was washed several times, wrapped in sheets and then buried on the compound, the agent testified. As his body deteriorated, he was moved to a tunnel beneath the compound, where two of the adults would wash his body every other day, according to Taylor.
But Siraj Wahhaj's lawyer suggested that such actions demonstrated reverence and respect, not abusive behavior.
"Touching a child and reading from the Quran -- that's somehow interpreted as insidious," he said.
News Courtesy: www.cnn.com
