HAMMOND — An Elkhart woman faces a federal criminal charge after she reportedly spent the past few years in Syria as the wife of an ISIS fighter.
Samantha Elhassani, 32, returned to Indiana Tuesday after she was released by Syrian Democratic Forces personnel into the custody of U.S. officers, the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Northern District of Indiana announced.
She made her first appearance in federal court in Hammond on Wednesday.
A federal grand jury charged Elhassani on March 21 with making false statements to FBI agents in March 2015, the indictment against her shows. The indictment was sealed when the charge was filed, and then unsealed Tuesday as Elhassani returned to the U.S.
Her four children were also taken into custody by the Indiana Department of Child Services.
“Indiana DCS will make any necessary determinations regarding, safety and well-being,” a line from a news release by the federal prosecutor’s office reads.
Elhassani married her husband, Moussa Elhassani, a Moroccan national, while the two lived and worked in the Elkhart area. The couple, with her two children, traveled to Turkey for a vacation in 2015, but then Moussa Elhassani tricked her and forced the family to move into Syria, Samantha Elhassani said during an interview on PBS’ “Frontline” in March as part of a joint investigation by the program and the BBC.
The family lived in Raqqa, the capital of ISIS, for about two years, Elhassani said. In that time, she gave birth to two children fathered by Moussa Elhassani; they owned two slaves who she said her husband raped multiple times; her oldest son, age 10, was forced to appear in an ISIS propaganda video threatening President Trump; and she was accused of spying and tortured for trying to escape, according to details in reports “Frontline” posted online.
Moussa Elhassani was killed in an airstrike while fighting for ISIS in 2017. Samantha Elhassani and the children then fled Raqqa and were captured by Kurdish troops, the report said. She was interviewed by Frontline while in custody in a Kurdish detention camp.
After returning to the U.S., Elhassani made an initial appearance in court Wednesday for a hearing on the false statement charge and the sentence she could face if convicted. The maximum penalty for such a charge is five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of probation.
The court also appointed an attorney to represent Elhassani in the case after hearing whether or not she would be able to hire a private attorney, Ryan Holmes, the U.S. Attorney's office spokesman said Wednesday.
Elhassani remains in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.
Meanwhile, another U.S. citizen, Ibraheem Izzy Musaibli, was also transferred out of Syria and into U.S. custody Tuesday, the northern Indiana U.S. Attorney's office said in the same news release announcing Elhassani's transfer.
Musaibli was taken to Detroit where he’s charged with a federal count of providing material support to a terrorist group by fighting for ISIS in Syria from about April 2015 through June, according to the federal grand jury indictment against him.
Aimee Ambrose can be reached at aimee.ambrose@goshennews.com or at 574-533-2151, ext. 316. Follow Aimee on Twitter at @aambrose_TGN.
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