Teen testifies about boy’s death and firearms training at New Mexico compound

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — With his hand placed on his son’s neck, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj recited verses of the Quran as part of a ritual meant to rid the toddler of evil spirits that Wahhaj and members of his extended family believed were causing the boy’s ailments.

The ritual known as ruqyah had been done countless times on the boy. But this time was different. It ended with the child foaming from the mouth until he stopped breathing. He had gone without needed medication after being taken without his mother’s permission.

There were no calls to 911 or attempts to rush him to the nearest hospital. Nor was he given any medication that December day in 2017 at a remote desert encampment in northern New Mexico.

Details about the last moments of Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj’s life were laid out in testimony Wednesday in the case of the boy’s father and three other family members, including two of his aunts. They are facing kidnapping or terrorism charges, or both, that stem from an August 2018 raid in search of the 3-year-old boy at a squalid compound near the Colorado state line.

Authorities said they found the defendants living with 11 hungry children without running water at the encampment encircled by berms of tires with an adjacent shooting range where guns and ammunition were seized.

Prosecutors presented evidence Wednesday that Siraj Ibn Wahhaj and his partner Jany Leveille, a Haitian national, took Abdul-Ghani to resettle in New Mexico, where they performed prayer rituals on the boy and the other children. Leveille was initially charged with kidnapping and terrorism-related charges, but she agreed to accept a reduced sentence on weapons charges. She has not appeared at the trial.

Leveille’s son, who was 13 at the time, was asked by prosecutors about the moments before the boy died, the family’s journey to New Mexico and the prophecy that his mother had relayed to the group — that the boy would be resurrected as Jesus Christ and an army they hoped to recruit would rid the world of nonbelievers.

The teen described the firearms and tactical training he and his older brother participated in at the family’s makeshift shooting range. Fearing that they were being surveilled by federal authorities, the group spent months out of sight under a tarp, in a camper trailer and underground in tunnels they had dug. They used a bucket for the bathroom and one of the men was able to get food from a food bank miles away.

The teen, who now lives with an aunt and cousins in New York, testified that life at the compound was “terrible.”

“I was stuck in a hole that I couldn’t get out of,” he said.

The teen spent more than three hours on the stand, with defense attorneys scheduled to question him Thursday. Two other children who were found at the compound in 2018 also were expected to testify.

Defense attorneys for Wahhaj’s sisters — Hujrah and Subhanah Wahhaj — have argued that the terrorism charges are largely based on a fantastical diary written by Leveille about her belief that Abdul-Ghani would be resurrected and that the family’s efforts to secure basic shelter in a harsh, remote environment were being misrepresented by prosecutors.

Prosecutors showed numerous photos of the compound and videos of some of the firearm exercises while Leveille’s son was on the stand. The teen testified that the group had to stay hidden because Abdul-Ghani had been reported missing.

Early on, authorities who were searching for the boy had visited the home where they were staying in Georgia. The teen said it was soon after that his mother, stepfather and the others gathered a few belongings and began the caravan to New Mexico, where one of the defendants owned land.

The teen said his mother had received a message from Allah that they had to move quick. The teen was told to pack seven outfits. He also took his game console. Everything else was left behind.

A prosecutor asked about the mood the night that they left Georgia.

“It felt dark and rushed and surreal,” the teen testified.