Court Orders Release on Bond of Orlando Shooter's Wife

A U.S. magistrate has ordered that the widow of Omar Mateen, the man who fatally shot 49 people and wounded 53 others at Orlando, Florida's gay Pulse nightclub last June, should be released on bond, saying federal prosecutors hadn't shown sufficient evidence that she posed a serious flight risk or danger to the public.

Noor Salman, 30, will be able to stay with her uncle who lives in the East Bay city of Rodeo.

Magistrate Donna Ryu issued a 48-hour stay on her order so that officials in Florida could review it.

Salman pleaded not guilty in January to charges of aiding and abetting Mateen's support of the terrorist group ISIS and to obstruction of justice. She was arrested January 16 at her family's home in Rodeo.

The former Fort Pierce, Florida resident's 29-year-old husband was killed in a shootout with police at Pulse. She faces a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted. She's currently being held without bail in Santa Rita Jail in Dublin. Salman declined a visit from the Bay Area Reporter earlier this year.

A news release from the U.S. Department of Justice says, "According to [her] indictment, from no later than end of April 2016 through and including June 12, 2016, Salman aided and abetted Mateen's attempted provision and provision of material support, namely, personnel and services," to the terrorist group "and the death of multiple victims resulted."

Prosecutors continued that on June 12 - the day of the worst U.S. mass shooting in modern history - "Salman obstructed justice by engaging in misleading conduct" toward officials.

Salman's attorneys had asked for her to be released on bond, saying she was a battered woman with learning disabilities who doesn't pose a danger. Prosecutors had said that she'd known of the coming attack and that she'd even given Mateen a cover story.

In federal court in Oakland Wednesday, Ryu said, "All the information provided by the government is hotly debated." Among other things, she noted that any admissions Salman had made had come at the end of a 16-hour interrogation the day of the massacre, and no attorney had been with her as she was questioned.

Salman's uncle and mother agreed to post their homes to secure the $500,000 bond. Ryu emphasized to them that if Salman violates her bond, they could lose their homes. Salman was ordered to be monitored by GPS and can only leave the house for reasons like medical appointments or court appearances.

Federal prosecutor Sara Sweeney has said that Salman had "repeatedly lied to law enforcement," and that she's a "risk of flight and danger to the community."

Sweeney has said that Salman had admitted that she knew Mateen had left their home June 11 "with a firearm and a backpack full of ammunition" and that he'd been "pumped up."

She said that Salman had known that her husband was "planning a terrorist attack."

The next court date is March 9.