Trial of Kansas Teacher Who Joined ISIS Shows Family’s Deep Scars

Earlier than the listening to, Raj Parekh, the primary assistant U.S. legal professional for the Japanese District of Virginia, filed a sentencing memo describing the cruelty that Ms. Fluke-Ekren unleashed on her youngsters, together with her oldest son, Gabriel Fluke, who spoke briefly on the sentencing.

Such memos typically supply an ordinary recounting of the crimes, however Mr. Parekh sought to color a brutal portrait of Ms. Fluke-Ekren’s relentless abuse of her youngsters and her unyielding devotion to extremism.

Ms. Fluke-Ekren “left a path of betrayal,” Mr. Parekh stated, changing into “a terrorist army chief, and in impact, the empress of ISIS.” He added that she was “pushed by fanaticism, energy, manipulation, delusional invincibility and excessive cruelty.”

Wearing a black hijab with a inexperienced shirt that learn “prisoner,” Ms. Fluke-Ekren, 42, vigorously denied abusing her daughter or forcing her to marry, claiming it was Leyla’s resolution.

Crying at occasions, Ms. Fluke-Ekren stated, “I deeply remorse my decisions.”

Ms. Fluke-Ekren grew up in Lawrence, Kan., on an 81-acre farm that has belonged to her household for greater than a century. She married in 1996, giving delivery to Gabriel and a daughter, Alaina, quickly after. However the marriage crumbled, and the couple divorced in 2002. She was a “con artist,” her first husband recalled, a characterization echoed by their son, who described her as “a monster.”