Dutch court convicts four women of IS terrorism charges
A Dutch judge on Thursday sentenced four women repatriated from Syrian refugee camps last year to prison terms of up to three years on terrorism charges.
They were among five Dutch women and 11 children who returned to the Netherlands last February after the Dutch government’s operation to extradite them from Arroy refugee camp in northeast Syria.
The women were put on trial shortly thereafter in the Rotterdam District Court, facing charges of joining the fighters of the now-defunct Islamic caliphate and planning terrorist acts at the height of the Syrian civil war.
“The women went to the battlefields of Syria and Iraq knowing there was a war going on there,” the judge said in a statement issued by the Rotterdam Court.
“They joined ISIS there. Their husbands held IS positions,” they said, referring to the Islamic State terrorist group.
Sentences imposed on four of the women ranged from 30 to 36 months in prison, of which 12 to 15 months were suspended.
“Furthermore, women must comply with all sorts of special conditions, including regular reporting to authorities,” the judge said.
However, they pointed out that the women had “clearly abandoned IS’s ideology.”
A fifth woman was acquitted of terrorism charges but was given a 16-month sentence, of which nine months was suspended, for “traveling to a war zone and leaving a child incapacitated.” rice field.
“There are few words to describe the severity of what has become increasingly known to former residents of IS regions,” the judge said.
“Furthermore, many of these crimes are unmistakably terrorist crimes as they were committed with the express purpose of instilling fear in people in these regions,” they added.
The Dutch government has repatriated the woman after warning that courts in 2021 may have to drop the charges against her if she is not brought back within months.
Since 2012, some 300 Dutch jihadists have traveled to Syria to join Islamic extremist fighters, according to Dutch government figures.
About 100 people remain, many of them in camps and detention centers in northern Syria, Iraq and Turkey, but about 100 have died, the Dutch secret service said.
https://www.expatica.com/nl/general/dutch-court-sentences-four-women-on-is-terror-charges-569436/ Dutch court convicts four women of IS terrorism charges