AWFUL

Prosecutor: Boy Died in New Mexico Compound During Religious Ritual

The ritual was supposed to “cast demonic spirits from his body” and he would then become Jesus, prosecutor alleges.

A 3-year-old who died in a New Mexico encampment with his his father, four other adults, and 11 malnourished children was killed in a “religious ritual intended to cast demonic spirits from his body,” a prosecutor told the court in a pretrial hearing. Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj’s father, his two sisters, his wife, and another man are each facing 11 counts of child abuse after police found the children living in squalid conditions outside the town of Taos. According to CNN, prosecutors claim Wahhaj’s body was “washed several times, wrapped in sheets” then buried in the compound. Wahhaj was allegedly going to emerge from the ritual as Jesus and would tell the adults which “corrupt” institutions to target. One of the children at the camp told prosecutors that the boy underwent the rituals “over several days for unspecified amounts of time” and he “passed out and his heart stopped beating” during one of them. According to Wahhaj’s mother, he was abducted by his father, Siraj Wahhaj, late last year, and the boy suffered from seizures. Siraj Wahhaj reportedly wanted to stop giving his son his medication and to “cast demonic spirits” out of his body instead. Prosecutors claim in court documents that the adults were training the children at the compound to conduct school shootings, but defense lawyers say the adults were likely being trained to “protect the compound.”