Torture, beating, sexual assault: American woman, the widow of an ISIS militant, trying to return home
'19.04.2018'
Source: CNN
Samantha Sally thought she was going to have a holiday in Indiana, but instead experienced horror from ritual beatings, torture, rape, propagated by ISIL militants in their videos, writes CNN.
The holiday is what her husband Musa Elhassani promised her when he called her to come to Hong Kong in 2014. The couple was planning to move to Morocco for a cheaper life, but for this it was necessary to spend money through Hong Kong.
A few days later Sally was on the Turkish border with Syria, near the territory of ISIS. The husband held the hand of Sally’s daughter, Sarah, and the woman held the hand of Matthew’s son. The woman was faced with a cruel choice - to leave her daughter in ISIS and save her son or follow the husband and children to the territory of the Caliphate in ISIL. The woman says that this was the only way to save her daughter.
“It was unbearable to stay with my son and watch my daughter leave with her husband - I had to make a choice. Perhaps I would never see my daughter again, ”Sally, 32, recalled in an interview with CNN.
The woman gave an interview while in a Syrian-Kurdish prison. She was there after the ISIL militants were defeated in Rakka. She is not sure if she can see the USA again.
“I was like in prison”
Sally worked with Elhassani in a delivery company in Elkhart, Indiana. They lived with her son from her first marriage, Matthew, and daughter Sarah.
Elhassani was fond of racing and loved to watch family TV shows. He, according to Sally, used drugs and deceived her, demonstrating that he was a pious believer. Their family life was not smooth, but Elhassani offered to move to his home country of Morocco, where Sally would have had cheap surgery on her knee, and they could start a new life.
The woman says that she liked the idea so much that she agreed to go to Hong Kong and helped transfer the money. The couple then went to Turkey, and, according to Sully, it was a romantic period of their relationship. Elhassani gave gifts and was very attentive to the family.
A trip to Asia was needed to bypass law enforcement agencies that identify those who are seeking to join ISIS. But Sally claims that she didn’t know what she was getting into, until she found herself on the Turkish border near the city of Sanilurfa.
There, Elhassani refused to leave a woman in a hotel room, saying that the city was "too dangerous."
“As soon as we got to Sanilurfa, everything changed. I felt like a prisoner, ”the woman says.
“During the years that we were together, he separated me from my family. I did not see that something was going wrong. I always thought my husband was always right, ”she recalls.
On the Turkish border, Sally was faced with a difficult choice. She claims that she was forced to cross the border, and she hoped that later she would be able to return to Turkey.
“People can think whatever they want, but they don’t know what it’s like to make that decision,” she says.
Buying slaves in the market
Within the so-called Caliphate, her relationship with Elhassani changed dramatically.
“We were very in love. Romance never left a relationship. But as soon as we got here, he changed: I was a dog, I had no choice. He was very cruel and I couldn't do anything about it, ”Sally recalls.
She says she was afraid of a divorce, as they would have taken away her children and she would be even more vulnerable if she remained in ISIS. She said that once, while pregnant, she spent three months in ISIL prison on suspicion of spying on the United States. She was kept in solitary confinement and tortured and sexually abused.
She was later released and she returned to the small house she had built for her family on the outskirts of Raqqa. There they sometimes returned from the front line and Elhasanni.
Sally felt lonely, and her husband offered her a way out. In 2014, ISIS militants seized hundreds of Yezidis and sold many young women as slaves or for sexual pleasures. Elhasanni offered to take the slave into the house so that Sally would not be so lonely during his absence. He led her to the slave market.
There she saw Soad.
“When I saw Soad, I couldn't think about the money, I wanted to help her,” Sally said. The 17-year-old girl cost $ 10 - half of the amount that Sally had illegally brought from the United States. She brought Soad home, and the girl was soon raped by her husband.
Soon, Elhassani decided to "buy" his own slave and spent another 7500 dollars by buying an 14-year-old Bedrin. He raped that girl too. Later, the family bought the boy Aam for 1500 dollars.
Sally claims to buy girls to protect them and take care of them.
“I tried to save money, I knew that sooner or later Elhassani would die and I would need money. That was the plan, ”the woman says.
When asked if she felt involved in the serial rape of girls, Sally replied:
“The same thing happened in every house, but she didn’t have the support that I provided. We constantly talked about helping her see her mom. I was going to get her out of here and get her home. ”
“And no, no one will ever know what it is like to watch her husband raping a 14-year-old girl. And when she comes to you, she cries, and I hug her and say that everything will be okay, just be patient. I will never apologize for bringing these girls to my home. I was with them, and they were with me. And we knew that if we were patient, we would survive. You understand? Otherwise, they would have been locked in the bedroom and given only tea. And so we were together, we cooked together, slept in the same room, drank coffee. I was like a mother to them, ”says Sally.
Two broken ribs
Sally is not like the pious wife of an ISIS militant. She has a big tattoo on the neck on the right side, a ring in her nose, and she smokes. In addition, she was interviewed by FBI officials, whom she admitted to voluntarily joining ISIL, and this fact complicates her situation and could lead to prison.
CNN talked to some female friends who live in Indiana. They claim that she is a kind woman and that they did not see signs of radicalization.
“She is an amazing, wonderful, generous person, a really good friend and a great mother for Matt and Sarah,” says friend Andria Lightner.
Another close friend of Sally, anonymously, said that before leaving for Hong Kong, she began to communicate less with others and did not tell her friends about the upcoming trip.
CNN also found the girl Soad, who lived in Sally's house. The girl was reunited with her family and is now in a refugee camp in Iraq. She remembers the American with gratitude.
“I really want to see you, even if this is the last time. I miss you and your children very much. I am ready to do everything to help you get out. I love you so much, ”Soad said in a video message to Sally.
Sally and her family are victims. Her son Matthew wanted to make an actor in one of the propaganda clips of ISIS. One day, one of the ISIS fighters came to their house and brought the script for the video, which was partly in Arabic, partly in English.
“After I saw the script, I was beaten. I told my husband that this is not acceptable (video featuring Matthew). After my words, he became very cruel, scared his son and forced him to become an accomplice. As a result, two of my ribs were broken. This happened three days after the cesarean. I couldn't do anything, ”the woman recalls.
Matthew was forced to star in ISIS.
“He came home tired and cried all the time,” the woman recalls.
The video captures Matthew, who walks past a destroyed mosque and promises to take revenge on US President Donald Trump and the West.
“It was very difficult. I had to say one word and then repeat it in Arabic. I didn’t want to do this, and they hit me, ”the boy said.
When asked where he would like to be now, Matthew said: “Return to your state. Back to America.
ISIS is a handful of Drugs Using Thugs.
The family had a chance to escape from Rakka after the drone killed Elhassani last year.
“I was able to breathe. It was like - Ok, now we can move on to the next phase. At least we could all breathe now, ”Sally recalls.
The US and international coalition forces were slowly squeezing the ring around Raqqah, but Sally said that she had no way to escape with other civilians.
“All I knew was that if we tried to leave, then the snipers who worked with my husband had the right to kill me. So I thought that if I got out, I would be blown up by a mine or they would shoot me, ”the woman says.
Sally and her family stayed in Rakka for a very long time and left the city with the last hundred ISIS fighters. She separated from the convoy and went to the east, and then she was detained.
“I don't care what people think. When I left, I was very happy, I could not breathe for all three years. All I saw was a bunch of drug-using thugs who had no place and they created their own state, ”she says.
“I will do everything to get my children back to where they belong. If I have to spend 15 years in prison, it’s better than staying here, ”she says.
The family wants to return home to America, but the FBI agents have not yet filed any charges or plane tickets to America.
