Muslim extremist couple charged with child abuse for death of three-year-old boy

The father and step-mother of Abdul-ghani Wahhaj, 3, have been charged with child abuse after neglecting to give toddler medicine needed to treat his seizures

The father and stepmother of the three-year-old boy whose remains were found at a ramshackle compound have been charged with child abuse, and they could face life behind bars for their crimes.

The charges come after three weeks of interviews and examinations into the police raid of a New Mexico compound on August 3 where five adults and 11 children were found living in squalor and the remains of missing boy three-year-old Abdul-ghani Wahhaj were found.

Siraj Ibn Wahhaj and his wife Jany Leveille are accused of failing to provide Siraj’s severely disabled son Abdul-ghani with his medication needed to treat his health problems including seizures, ultimately leading to his death.

They were charged with child abuse resulting in death and conspiracy to commit child abuse by a district attorney’s office in Taos on Friday.

Siraj Ibn Wahhaj

Jany Leveille

Siraj Ibn Wahhaj (left) and his wife Jany Leveille (right) were charged with child abuse resulting in death and conspiracy to commit child abuse on Friday for neglecting to provide medication to Wahhaj’s severely disabled son whose remains were found in their New Mexico compound

The affidavit alleges that the couple knew the child suffered seizures and was diagnosed with a seizure disorder but neglected to provide him medication or seek medical care for him. 

Wahhaj and Leveille, as well as the three other adults who lived at the compound, already face charges of child abuse for their reign of terror at a makeshift desert camp in New Mexico that they called home.

Police raided their camp on August 3 and found the five adults and 11 children living in filth and hunger with no plumbing. The children living there were allegedly trained to handle firearms to carry out school shootings.

Three days after the raid, police found the highly decomposed body of three-year-old Abdul-ghani in a tunnel at the camp.

‘We now know the child died on December 24, 2017 and was concealed at the compound,’ Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe said in a statement.

ll 

The couple were among the five adults and 11 children found during August 3 raid of this New Mexico, where they found in a state of filth and hunger. All five adults arrested at compound are jailed and charged with child abuse

Photographs taken on the compound reveal how the group lived in squalor and had a makeshift shooting range as the children were allegedly trained to use firearms to eventually carry out school shootings

Photographs taken on the compound reveal how the group lived in squalor and had a makeshift shooting range as the children were allegedly trained to use firearms to eventually carry out school shootings

Opened cans of tuna and cranberries sit next to a dusty boot in the compound. There was no other food on the site and the children had not eaten for days when they were discovered

Opened cans of tuna and cranberries sit next to a dusty boot in the compound. There was no other food on the site and the children had not eaten for days when they were discovered

Toddler Abdul-ghani had been reported missing in December from Jonesboro, Georgia by his mother Hakima Ramzi. She said Wahhaj said he was taking the child to a park but never returned.

His father Wahhaj is accused to kidnapping the child and performing purification rituals on him. 

Prosecutors say that the child died late December 2017 during a religious ritual where the Quran was read out to cast out demonic spirits as the child’s exhausted heart faded in and out.  

The ritualistic death was described at court hearings using information garnered from FBI interviews from the teenagers discovered at the compound. 

Ordeal: Hakima Ramzi's attorney told DailyMail.com: 'Hakima told us, 'He told me he was taking Abdul-Ghani to the park for a little while'. Instead he held a exorcism which ended in Abdul-ghani's death

Ordeal: Hakima Ramzi’s attorney told DailyMail.com: ‘Hakima told us, ‘He told me he was taking Abdul-Ghani to the park for a little while’. Instead he held a exorcism which ended in Abdul-ghani’s death

These accounts conform with aspects of an alternative, meditative Islamic healing ritual called ruqya. 

The New Mexico Office of Medical Inspector has not yet determined how Abdul-ghani died. Spokeswoman Alex Sanchez said Friday that the agency is performing analyses.    

Leveille’s lawyer Kelly Golightley declined to comment on charges, Wahhaj’s lawyer Clark has not commented on them either. 

All five defendants arrested at the compound have been charged with child neglect and are being held in jail.  

Also Friday, prosecutors filed a lengthy appeal of a district judge’s order that could allow at least three of the defendants to be released on house arrest with ankle monitors.

Prosecutors have alleged that older children were trained to handle firearms to possibly order attacks on government institutions.

Judge Sarah Backus said the previous evidence provided by prosecutors was troubling but did not indicate any clear threat to public safety from the defendants, who have no criminal records.

Leveille, a Haitian national, was transferred from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody back to Taos County on Thursday where she is also being held on immigration charges, the sheriff’s office said.

Ibn Wahhaj, his brother in law, Lucas Morton, and sisters Hujrah Wahhaj and Subhannah Wahhaj are also in Taos County jail awaiting trial. 

If Wahhaj and Leveille are found guilty, they could spend life in prison. 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk