18 January 2017•Update: 18 January 2017
By Michael Hernandez
WASHINGTON
The widow of the man who carried out a devastating attack at an Orlando nightclub was charged Tuesday with seeking to help her husband carry out the attack, and obstruction of justice.
Noor Salman faces life in prison if convicted of aiding and abetting Omar Mateen’s "attempted provision and provision of material support" to Daesh between April and June of last year, and obstruction of justice.
Salman obstructed justice by misleading local police and the FBI, the Justice Department said in a statement.
Mateen killed 49 victims at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando last June in an attack claimed by Daesh.
Salman made her first court appearance on Tuesday. She was arrested on Monday at her home outside of San Francisco, California.
Salman had been under an FBI investigation since she was questioned for hours shortly after the attack. Authorities at the time expressed suspicion she was not telling the truth about not knowing about the attack in advance.
She told the New York Times in November that she "was unaware of everything".
Salman’s parents immigrated to the U.S. from the West Bank in 1985. She met Mateen in 2011 and married shortly afterward, although the exact date has not been made public.
