United States: 4 life sentences for plotting to kill federal agents and child kidnapping

Five people arrested in 2018 at an unsanitary camp in the United States were sentenced Wednesday, including four to life in prison for “providing material support to terrorists” or trafficking, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.

• Read more: Five people have been charged with planning an attack on US soil

Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, his accomplice Johnny Leveille, an illegal Haitian, his two sisters, Hujra and Subana Wahhaj, and the latter's husband, Lucas Morton, were convicted in October by a federal court in New Mexico (southwest). facts.

When the verdict was handed down on Wednesday, Siraj Ibn Wahaj and Lucas Morton were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for “providing material support to terrorists” and “conspiracy to kill a government agent”. A report by the US Department of Justice.

Both sisters were given the same sentence for kidnapping the 3-year-old son of Siraj Ibn Wahhaj. Lucas Morton was also convicted on this charge.

As for Jany Leveille, who pleaded guilty to “criminal conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists” and illegal possession of a weapon, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison, at the end of which he will be deported. Ministry.

According to Justice Department officials, Jany Leveille testified that the five defendants were willing to kill any federal officers or employees who entered their camp.

In December 2017, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj illegally took his son from his mother in Alabama (Southeast), and the group took him to New Mexico, where he died two weeks later. Believing the child to be “possessed by a demon,” they “subjected him to an exhausting regime of daily spiritual exorcisms,” the Justice Ministry said in October.

After his death, “under Madame Leville's authority, they formed a community centered around the belief that the infant Jesus Christ would return to punish corrupt institutions,” establishing a fortified base and a field shooting range where they trained. Some of their children, according to the same source.

On August 3, 2018, as part of an investigation into the disappearance of a child, authorities raided a one-of-a-kind encampment in the New Mexico desert.

There they found five adults and eleven minors in emaciated, dirty and ragged clothing. Later, the body of the missing child was found buried in the garbage.

The hideout contained a dozen guns and ammunition, but no water, food or electricity.

According to court documents, the boy, disabled by a traumatic brain injury, was prone to frequent seizures.