ILLINOIS
Courier-News
George Houde
Chicago Tribune
A possible plea deal is under consideration for the founder of an Islamic school accused of sexual abusing a former student and a former employee.
Mohammed Abdullah Saleem, an imam who founded the Institute of Islamic Education in Elgin, is charged with molesting a female student dozens of times between 2001 and 2003, when she was a student at the school and he was principal.
That allegation of aggravated criminal sexual abuse came after Saleem, 77, had already been charged with groping a woman who worked for him at the school. The case is in court Monday morning.
If the case goes to trial, Saleem faces the prospect of having not just the two alleged victims testify against him in open court, potentially in explicit detail. Cook County Judge James Karahalios has also ruled that he will allow testimony from two other women who say they too were groped by the imam — a turn that presumably puts more pressure on Saleem to strike a plea deal.
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