ORLANDO, Fla. _ A federal judge granted a request Tuesday for Noor Salman, the widow of Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen, to undergo a mental evaluation.
The request was filed earlier in the day by federal prosecutors, asking that an expert give Salman an evaluation because she plans on using a mental disease or mental condition defense in court, court records show.
Salman's attorneys have said she was abused by Mateen. She went into detail of her life with the gunman in an interview with The New York Times.
Salman was arrested in January on federal charges of providing material support to a terrorist and tampering with evidence. The charges came seven months after the June 12, 2016, attack that left 49 dead and more than 68 others injured.
She is being held in custody until her trial, which is scheduled for March.
Court records show she underwent a mental evaluation due to the abuse. Now, prosecutors asked her to go through a second, videotaped evaluation with an expert of their choosing.
Mateen was killed in a shootout with police outside the Orlando nightclub after a nearly three-hour hostage situation.
Salman's family has said she had no idea of her husband's plans and stayed with him because of their son.
Her uncle, Al Salman, who said he helped raise her, told reporters that Mateen physically abused her and threw her against a wall.
If his niece had known "what that crazy guy would do," he said after a court hearing in January, she would have "taken her son and run away from him."
But federal prosecutors say Salman was aware of her husband's actions, claiming in court documents he showed her a photo of the club days before the shooting.
Court records state she told investigators that her husband had asked her, "How bad would it be if a club got attacked?"
