A federal judge in Oakland ordered house arrest for the wife of Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen ahead of her trial on felony charges related to the 2016 massacre.
In freeing Mateen's widow, Noor Salman, from federal custody pending the trial, federal magistrate Donna Ryu cast doubt on the strength of the government’s case against her.
Salman was arrested in January and is facing two felony charges for allegedly aiding and abetting Mateen's "provision of material support" to the terrorist group ISIS and obstructing the investigation into the massacre.
“I find that at this time the weight of the evidence is debatable,” Ryu said. “All of the information provided by the government is hotly debated.”
The bulk of the government’s case relies on admissions Salman allegedly made toward the end of an interrogation that occurred during a 16-hour detention.
Federal prosecutors have said Salman was in the car with Omar Mateen as he cased three potential Orlando locations and that the couple spent some $25,000 using credit cards in the days before the shooting and made Salman the death beneficiary of Mateen's bank account. They’ve also said she created a cover story for him by telling his family he was going out for dinner with a friend.
Prosecutors did not provide enough evidence in court to keep Salman behind bars and did not establish clear evidence that Salman was violent or dangerous, Ryu said.