American woman turned ISIS fighter to be sentenced in Virginia federal court

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An American woman from Kansas convicted of leading an all-female ISIS battalion in Syria is to be sentenced on Tuesday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. 

Allison Fluke-Ekren, a 42-year-old U.S. citizen, could face up to a maximum sentence of 20 years behind bars after pleading guilty in June to having traveled overseas and engaged in terrorism-related activities in multiple countries, including Syria, Libya and Iraq from about September 2011 to May 2019. 

Her sentencing hearing was scheduled for 11 a.m. EST before Judge Leonie M. Brinkema. 

In a recent sentencing memo, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Raj Parekh included allegations from Fluke-Ekren’s own children detailing how they claim she emotionally, physically and sexually abused them for years while abroad. 

FAMILY DETAILS HORRIFIC ABUSE AT HANDS OF FEMALE ISIS LEADER AS JUDGE WEIGHS 20-YEAR SENTENCING 

This undated photo provided by the Alexandria, Va., Sheriff's Office in January 2022 shows Allison Fluke-Ekren. Fluke-Ekren, a Kansas native convicted of leading an all-female battalion of the Islamic State group, had a long history of behavior that included sexual and physical abuse of her own children, family said in court. (Alexandria Sheriff's Office via AP, File)

"Allison Fluke-Ekren brainwashed young girls and trained them to kill. She carved a path of terror, plunging her own children into unfathomable depths of cruelty by physically, psychologically, emotionally, and sexually abusing them," Parekh wrote. "Twenty years in prison is insufficient to fully account for her monstrous acts of terror and the immeasurable damage that she has caused to countless individuals across the globe, including her own children." 

Ultimately serving as the leader and organizer of an ISIS military battalion known as the Khatiba Nusaybah, Fluke-Ekren trained women on the use of automatic firing AK-47 assault rifles, grenades and suicide belts. 

Over 100 women and young girls, including those as young as 10 or 11-years-old, received military training from Fluke-Ekren in Syria on behalf of ISIS, according to federal prosecutors. 

Born in Lawrence, Kansas, Fluke-Ekren grew up on a picturesque 81-acre farm that had been in her family since 1880. Her grandfather and father were both U.S. military veterans, serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II and the U.S. Army in Vietnam, respectively. 

U.S. Army soldiers prepare to go out on patrol from a remote combat outpost on May 25, 2021, in northeastern Syria.  (John Moore/Getty Images)

But federal prosecutors say even her own family recalls how Fluke-Ekren tried to kill her brother growing up, manipulated her first husband before leaving him, converted to Islam at the University of Kansas and then eventually manipulated and radicalized her second husband to move out of the country with their children to Egypt, sticking her parents with an $87,000 student loan bill. 

Expected to speak at her sentencing on Tuesday is one of her children, a daughter who, at age 13, Fluke-Ekren allegedly forced to marry an ISIS fighter "following her second husband’s death to gain political leverage within ISIS in furtherance of her battalion-related goals," Parekh wrote. 

The daughter is expected to speak about how she was raped by that same ISIS fighter, as well as the death of one of her brothers, whom Fluke-Ekren claimed died of meningitis while the family was in Syria. 

Fluke-Ekren also allegedly falsely claimed her son from her first marriage was the product of rape by an American soldier to increase her credibility in the religious community while living in Egypt.  

A masked Islamic State soldier poses holding the ISIS flag in 2015.  (History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

"My mother would find weaknesses in each of her kids and exploit them," Fluke-Ekren’s daughter wrote in a statement included in a prior sentencing memo. "Sometimes, Allison would even groom me into having weaknesses that she could use. My mother taught me to fear rape, and then she would molest me. Any time that I would disobey, Allison would break into hysteria, tears gushing from her eyes[.]"

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"My mother knew that I had a weakness for crying, and she used that against me… Your Honor, I would like to speak in court because I have more to say on the abuse and victimization Allison did to me while in ISIS. I want to give you a dynamic look at who Allison is," she wrote. "Your Honor, as Allison’s unloving daughter, I would also like to request that you give Alison the maximum sentence."