OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA: Widow of Omar Mateen, the man who killed 49 people at an Orlando gay nightclub, has pleaded not guilty in a federal court to allegations that she helped her husband ahead of the massacre. Noor Salman was recently arrested at her parents' home in Rodeo, San Francisco, over seven months after the deadliest mass shooting in US history. She was charged with obstruction of justice and aiding and abetting her husband's material support to ISIS by the grand jury.
Her family has maintained that she didn't know Mateen was going to commit the June 12 massacre at the Pulse nightclub, a two hour drive from their home. The recent hearing was a continuation of a proceeding that began last week when Assistant US Attorney Roger Handberg laid out the allegations. "She knew he was going to conduct the attack," Handberg told Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu. Outside the courtroom, Noor's uncle Al Salman spoke to the press and described her as a sweet woman who knew nothing of the attack ahead of time. "She is a very simple person. She didn't know what's going on," he said. He swore that she had "no idea what that crazy guy is doing. She don't like to see anybody get hurt."
Court documents state that Noor aided and abetted her husband from at least April onward. An official said that evidence will show she was complicit and had to know her husband was going to do something bad. Her Florida-based attorney Linda Moreno said, "Noor Salman had no foreknowledge nor could she predict what Omar Mateen intended to do that tragic night. Noor had told her story of abuse at his hands. We believe it is misguided and wrong to prosecute her and that it dishonours the memories of the victims to punish an innocent person," she said.
