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Associated Press

The widow of Omar Mateen, who murdered 49 people in the Orlando gay club Pulse in 2016, has been cleared of all charges related to the massacre by a jury in Orlando. 
Jurors reached their conclusions early Friday morning and the verdicts were announced hours later in court.
Noor Salman was acquitted of charges of helping her husband in the 2016 attack; of obstruction and lying to the FBI; and of providing material support to a terrorist organisation.
She would have faced life in prison if convicted.


Salman’s hands were shaking in the moments before the jury’s findings were announced, WKMG-TV reported, and her family gasped as the result was read out. 
After the verdicts were read, Salman began sobbing with joy and members of her family held each other. 
On the other side of the courtroom, families of the victims of the Pulse shooting sat stone-faced and silent.
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Outside the courthouse, Salman’s family said they were eager for her to be able to see her young son again. She had been in jail for two years awaiting trial.
Jurors deliberated over three days before reaching their verdict. They asked several questions about the charges Salman faced and closely examined the statement she made to the FBI in the hours after the attack.
Prosecutors said that Salman and her husband scouted out potential targets together – including Disney World’s shopping and entertainment complex – and that she knew he was buying ammunition for his AR-15 semi-automatic rifle in preparation for an attack.
She knew that he had a fascination with violent jihadi videos and an affinity for Islamic State group websites and gave him a “green light to commit terrorism”, prosecutors said.


Defence lawyers described Salman as an easily manipulated woman with a low IQ. They said that Salman, who was born in California to Palestinian parents, was abused by her husband, who cheated on her with other women and concealed much of his life from her.
Lawyer Charles Swift argued there was no way Salman knew that Mateen would attack the Pulse nightclub since Mateen himself did not know until moments before the shooting. 
His intended target was the Disney Springs complex, prosecutors said.
“It’s a horrible, random, senseless killing by a monster,” Swift said during closing arguments. “But it wasn’t preplanned. The importance to this case is that if he didn’t know, she couldn’t know.”
Salman’s statement to the FBI in the hours after the attack appeared to play a key role in the case. In the statement, Salman said over “the last two years, Omar talked to me about jihad.”
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She claimed her husband did not use the internet in their home, but he did. She told investigators that Mateen had deactivated his Facebook account in 2013, but they found that he had an account up until the month of the shooting – and was friends with his wife. 
She said her husband only had one gun when he had three, and that he wasn’t radicalised. Mateen had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group before he was killed.
Salman also advised Mateen to lie to his mother when she inquired about his whereabouts on the night of the shooting, prosecutors said.

Defence lawyers said that the FBI coerced Salman’s statement and that she signed it because she was tired after extensive questioning and feared losing her young son. They fought to have it thrown out.
Jurors asked to review the statement more closely a couple of hours into their deliberations and the judge obliged, printing off copies for them.
During the trial, prosecutors said that Mateen, who was born in New York to Afghan immigrants, intended to attack Disney World’s shopping and entertainment complex by hiding a gun in a stroller but became spooked by police and instead chose the gay club as his target.
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Assistant US Attorney Sara Sweeney showed surveillance video of the Disney Springs complex that captured Mateen walking near the House of Blues club in the hours before the Pulse attack. 
In it, he looks behind him at police officers standing nearby before deciding to leave.
“He had to choose a new target,” she said.

Salman’s lawyer took the jury through how she spent the hours immediately before the attack. 
She called a friend and her uncle in California, saying that she was coming to visit and that Mateen would be joining them.
She spoke with her in-laws, ate at Applebee’s and texted Mateen. He did not respond. 
She later went on Facebook, read a book and then texted Mateen again.
“You know you work tomorrow,” she wrote.
He responded: “You know what happened?”
She wrote, “What happened?”
Then he sent his last text: “I love you babe.”
Salman did not testify in her defence.


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Noor Salman had been on trial in Orlando on charges of helping her husband in the 2016 attack and lying to the FBI

FILE - In this June 12, 2016 file photo, law enforcement officials work at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., following a mass shooting. The widow of the gunman who killed dozens of people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando is going on trial Wednesday, March 14, 2018, in federal court. Thirty-one-year-old Noor Salman is charged with aiding and abetting her deceased husband Omar Mateen in planning the 2016 attack on the Pulse nightclub. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)

Pulse nightclub owner Barbara Poma, center, who was present for the verdict, left silently Friday, March 30, 2018 with a group of family members of Pulse victims after it was read. Some held hands as they left the courthouse. A jury found Noor Salman not guilty on all charges at the Orlando Federal Courthouse. (Red Huber/Orlando SEntinel/TNS)

Susan Adieh, left, cousin, and other family members of Noor Salman receive hugs from friends Friday, March 30, 2018 after a jury found Salman not guilty on all charges at the Orlando Federal Courthouse, in Orlando, Fla. The widow of the gunman who slaughtered 49 people at a gay Orlando nightclub was acquitted Friday of helping her husband plan the attack and lying to the FBI, ending the government’s two-year effort to hold someone accountable. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel via AP)

(FILES) File photo dated June 13, 2016 shows a makeshift memorial for the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting at Lake Eola in Orlando, Florida. The widow of the man who shot dead 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando nearly two years ago was acquitted March 30, 2018 in US federal court of aiding and abetting her husband, officials said. Noor Salman, 31, faced life in jail on charges of lying to investigators and helping Omar Mateen, who also injured at least 68 when he opened fire at the club on June 12, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / MANDEL NGAN

A crowd gathers, Monday, June 12, 2017, during a ceremony at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., that commemorated the one-year anniversary of the June 12, 2016, massacre that killed 49. (Joe Burbank/ Orlando Sentinel/TNS)

Defense attorneys Fritz Scheller, left, Charles Swift and Linda Moreno for Noor Salman react to a question during a press conference Friday, March 30, 2018 after the jury found Noor Salman not guilty on all charges at the Orlando Federal Courthouse. (Red Huber/Orlando SEntinel/TNS)

Noor Salman (second from right, with her lawyers on Friday) has been acquitted of aiding her husband Omar Mateen in the 2016 massacre of 49 people at Orlando gay nightclub Pulse. The attorneys, from left to right, are Linda Moreno, Fritz Scheller and Charles Swift. Photo: Susan Clary via AP

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Noor Salman had been on trial in Orlando on charges of helping her husband in the 2016 attack and lying to the FBI


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