The widow of a gunman who killed dozens at a Florida nightclub two years ago has been found not guilty of helping him.<\/p>\n
Noor Salman, 31, was charged with obstruction of justice and aiding Omar Mateen in providing support to the Islamic State militant group.<\/p>\n
Her lawyers had argued that she was an innocent victim of her husband’s lies.<\/p>\n
Mateen killed 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in June 2016 before he was killed by police.<\/p>\n
The 12-member jury returned their verdict on Friday morning on their third day of deliberations.<\/p>\n
Defence lawyer Charles Swift said in his closing argument: “She doesn’t go to the mosque, she searches for Hello Kitty on her website.<\/p>\n
“We’re supposed to believe she had long conversations with Omar Mateen about jihads?”<\/p>\n
Her attorneys also argued she was a victim of a “tragic marriage” to Mateen, with no prior knowledge of the attack.<\/p>\n
But prosecutors pointed to a statement Salman made to the FBI after her arrest in January 2017, that she knew her husband was going to do something violent.<\/p>\n
They also said Ms Salman “knowingly misled” FBI interrogators in the hours after the attack.<\/p>\n
Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"