Father convicted in N.M. terrorism case

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Jurors convicted a father of terrorism charges in a case that stemmed from the search for a 3-year-old boy who disappeared from Georgia and was found dead hundreds of miles away at a squalid compound in northern New Mexico in 2018.

Prosecutors told jurors that the boy’s father, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, and other members of his family had fled with the toddler to a remote stretch of the high desert so they could engage in firearms and tactical training to prepare for attacks against the government. It was all tied to an apparent belief that the boy would be resurrected as Jesus Christ and provide instructions. Jurors reached their decision Tuesday after deliberating for 2½ days.

In a case that took years to get to trial, jurors heard weeks of testimony from children who had lived with their parents at the compound, other family members, firearms experts, doctors and forensic technicians. The defendants, who are Muslim, argued that federal authorities targeted them because of their religion.

Wahhaj’s brother-in-law also was convicted of terrorism charges, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, and kidnapping that resulted in the boy’s death. Wahhaj’s sisters were convicted on the kidnapping charges.

The badly decomposed remains of the boy, Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, were eventually found in an underground tunnel at the compound on the outskirts of Amalia near the Colorado state line. An exact cause of death was never determined amid accusations that the boy, who lived with severe developmental disabilities and frequent seizures, had been deprived of crucial medication.