Salman’s family: She was in thrall to monster

Her defense will try to convince a jury

When she turned on the news June 12, 2016, to find there had been a mass shooting in Orlando, Susan Adieh’s thoughts turned to a loved one who might be among the dead.

But for her, that fear was prompted by a face on the screen: the shooter, Omar Mateen. Adieh knew Mateen. He was the mysterious, illtempered husband of her cousin, Noor Salman.

“We thought he killed her at the house before he went [to Orlando],” Adieh, who lives in Mississippi, said after a recent jail visit to see Salman.

Salman, 31, is on trial, accused of aiding and abetting her husband’s support of a foreign terror organization when he killed 49 people at Pulse nightclub in the name of the Islamic State. She also is charged with obstruction of

“All I want is people to imagine Noor as their child and think about how Noor was treated by that monster.” Susan Adieh, Noor Salman’s cousin

justice. She faces up to life in prison if convicted.

Her defense lawyers will present their case this week, hoping to persuade a 12-member jury to see their client as her family does: an abused wife who was manipulated by a “monster” she met and fell in love with online — and who lived in fear and isolation until his death.

Salman told Jacquelyn Campbell, a nurse who met with her in jail last year, that Mateen choked, raped and beat her during their four years of marriage.

Campbell may testify as an expert in domestic violence and post-traumatic stress.

The daughter of Palestinian immigrants, Salman was born in central western California and grew up in the same neighborhood where many of her aunts and uncles also lived, her family said.

Although the family spoke Arabic at home, English was Salman’s first language.

Salman’s mother wanted Salman to subscribe to their Muslim faith, said her uncle, Bassam Salman.

Noor Salman was grounded if she skipped services at the mosque or went to her friend’s Sunday School at the Christian church, the uncle said.

However, Islam wasn’t strictly enforced in the home as Salman and her two sisters grew older.

As an adult, Salman wed in the Palestinian territories. It was an arranged marriage that didn’t last.

Her first husband also was abusive, a clinical psychologist who evaluated her wrote in court records.

Living in California again, Salman met Mateen online in 2011. After a few months, Mateen and his father flew from their home in Fort Pierce to ask Salman’s parents for her hand in marriage. They agreed and the couple went to the courthouse to apply for a marriage license.

That’s when the family discovered Mateen also had been married before. They were upset to have learned only then, Adieh said.

But acknowledging that Salman, too, was previously married, the family made peace with each entering a second marriage.

Mateen and Salman were married in her parents’ backyard in 2011.

Mateen whisked his new bride away to Florida and, her family says, rarely allowed her to visit loved ones. They had a son in September 2012 and Salman became his primary caretaker.

She also frequently cared for other children in her inlaws’ family, Mateen’s sister and mother said in court last week.

Adieh saw flashes of Mateen’s anger when he and Salman attended her son’s wedding in Mississippi in 2015, she said.

Mateen drove up to the house and around a circular pavement as family members directed him to keep traffic moving. He turned too much and the back tire jumped over the pavement.

Mateen pushed open his door and checked for damage, while screaming at Salman in the passenger’s seat and calling her names.

“Something’s wrong with this guy,” Adieh recalled thinking.

They never had the opportunity to speak with Salman about her husband’s outburst, Adieh said.

“He did not leave her with us by herself,” she said.

Salman’s cousin and uncle said they would have intervened, had they known more. She was too embarrassed and fearful, they said, to confide in them.

Only after Adieh brought Salman to her Mississippi home the week after the Pulse attack did Salman begin confiding in her family, they said.

She told them she had stayed with Mateen so she wouldn’t lose her now 5year-old son, Salman’s uncle Al Salman told media in January, after her indictment.

However, prosecutors have presented a very different picture of Salman.

Jurors on Monday heard from FBI Special Agent Ricardo Enriquez, who said Salman tearfully confessed to knowing what her husband had been planning. In a series of statements, she eventually told the agent she was with Mateen as he scouted Pulse and talked about attacking the club, he said.

FBI Special Agent T.J. Sypniewski, who testified Tuesday, said he asked Salman if Mateen was physically violent toward her.

Salman said she hadn’t been abused, the agent testified.

Defense lawyers have argued Salman’s statements to the FBI were made under pressure and indicated they plan to call an expert on false confessions to testify.

As Salman’s family watched the news of the mass shooting unfold, Adieh frantically called her cell phone but got no answer. She learned, days later, that Salman was being interviewed by FBI agents at the time.

Adieh flew to Florida, and after reaching out to Mateen’s father on Facebook, found Salman and her son at the Mateen family’s home in Port St. Lucie.

Adieh said that she took Salman to a hotel and gave the FBI her room number. Agents visited and gave Salman approval to travel to Mississippi with Adieh.

Meanwhile, reporters descended upon Mateen’s family and ex-wife, Sitora Yusufiy.

In an interview with the New York Times, Yusufiy also described Mateen as abusive and controlling.

Salman never settled in at the home of Adieh and her husband, Mike Adieh. She wanted to return to California, where she grew up and her sick mother still lived.

Her mother, who is raising Salman’s son with family help, is not in Orlando for the trial because of health issues, Adieh said.

Adieh and Salman again called the FBI, they said, and asked for permission to go to California.

Agents approved and escorted them as they drove more than halfway across the country. She was arrested in January 2017 and in April was moved to a Florida jail. Her trial began this month.

“All I want is people to imagine Noor as their child and think about how Noor was treated by that monster,” Adieh said.