The lawyer for Hoda Muthana, a woman who went to Syria to join ISIS before marrying three terrorists, said she is “willing to pay whatever debts she has to society,” including a lengthy prison term.
Muthana, 24, told The Guardian in Syria that she wanted to head back to the United States with her baby son after spending four years with ISIS.
“We starved and we literally ate grass,” she was quoted by the outlet as saying. “I would tell them please forgive me for being so ignorant, and I was really young and ignorant and I was 19 when I decided to leave,” she said.
Muthana in 2015 posted messages on Twitter that allegedly tried to incite people to commit terrorist attacks against Americans during national holidays.
Muthana also wrote: “Go on drivebys, and spill all of their blood, or rent a big truck and drive all over them. Veterans, Patriots, Memorial, etc day … Kill them.”
Shibly claimed to Fox that she is a legal U.S. resident born in New Jersey.
“People shouldn’t forget that Hoda herself right now and her family are not saying that she should just come back home, that she should get a free pass,” he added. “Everybody acknowledges that what she did was horrible, disgusting, unacceptable, but we also acknowledge that America is great because of our legal system.”
What’s more, she might also have intelligence about ISIS.
“I personally called them, I said, ‘Listen we know where she is and she’s ready to speak with you. She’s ready to collaborate. She’s ready to turn herself in,’” he said. “‘You should at least go question her and see if she has intelligence that can protect American lives.’ And they failed to act on it and that’s really concerning.”
Zuhdi Jasser, the Founder and President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, said the United States shouldn’t consider bringing her back.
“She became, not only a terrorist, she became an enemy of our country and if she did believe in the citizenship oath…she abandoned it and actually violated it and became an enemy combatant,” he told Fox.
“If she is allowed in, the other path she could have is to come in and get due process of law as a citizen, which I hope would include imprisonment, and then a trial for treason, and committing acts of war against her own country,” Jasser said, adding that Shibly is wasting his time with her case.
“There are millions of American Muslims and people who want to come back that are true humanitarian victims of the Syria conflict,” he added. “They should get the message that jihadists have no space here and they need to be rejected legally with the full brunt of our law,” Jasser said.
