The New Mexico compound where Siraj Ibn Wahhaj took his 3-year-old son, Abdul Ghani. (Screenshot: KRQE)
Five extremists were sentenced for their connection to a young child’s death and terrorism plot against the United States.
Four of them — Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, his sisters Hujrah Wahhaj and Subhanah Wahhaj, and Subhanah’s husband, Lucas Morton — must spend the rest of their days in the federal prison system.
The fifth, would-be prophet Jany Leveille, received 15 years in prison. She had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and being in possession of a firearm while unlawfully in the United States. U.S. District Judge William Johnson at the sentencing on March 6 noted that Leveille had gotten treatment for acute schizophrenia after her 2018 arrest, took competency evaluations, and had started taking medication, according to The Associated Press. Originally from Haiti, Leveille faces deportation after her prison term.
Morton and Siraj Wahhaj were convicted last year in a New Mexico federal court to conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, providing material support to terrorists, and conspiracy to murder an officer or employee of the United States. Morton was also convicted with the Wahhaj sisters with conspiracy to commit kidnapping resulting in death, and kidnapping resulting in death.
Authorities said that the group, led by Leveille, abducted 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 rid the world of purportedly corrupt institutions, including the FBI, CIA, and U.S. military, and to kill those who did not convert and follow Leveille,” authorities wrote. “The planning and training for this conspiracy took place at a heavily fortified, purpose-built, militarized compound in Amalia.”
Abdul died, however. 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 come back as Jesus.
But the 3-year-old did not come back.
Leveille shifted 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 authorities searched the compound on the child’s birthday, they found his remains in an underground tunnel, according to federal authorities. Investigators determined he had died on Christmas Eve 2017, they said.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
