The Dutch authorities have announced the return of five jihadist women and their 11 children from a refugee camp in Syria, and they will prosecute the mothers. Germany's Attorney General's Office has detained a young woman suspected of supporting a Syrian terrorist organization.
Five Dutch jihadists who were returned to their country from a refugee camp in Syria will appear before a court in Rotterdam next Monday, to be tried on terrorism charges, the public prosecution announced on Friday (February 4, 2022).
The five women and their 11 children arrived in the Netherlands on Friday after being deported from the Rouge refugee camp in northeastern Syria, according to media reports.
"The women will be brought before a Dutch judge, for the first time, on a charge of terrorism," said Prosecution Department spokeswoman Prigetta van de Musdeike.
During the session, which will be held behind closed doors, the judges will determine their identities and make a decision to continue their detention for at least two weeks, according to the spokeswoman. On Wednesday, the Dutch government announced its decision to return the five jihadists, without giving details of the "special operation" carried out to return them.
"The suspects will be arrested in the Netherlands for the purpose of trial… Their children will be transferred to child protection institutions," Justice Minister Dylan Yaslagos Zagrius said in a letter to parliament signed by Foreign Minister Wafka Hoxtra.
The decision to return jihadists who joined the Islamic State militants in Syria was made after a Rotterdam court warned in 2021 that it could drop charges against them if they were not returned to the Netherlands within two months.
"The Dutch government intends to prosecute all terrorist elements and will not allow them to evade punishment," the two ministers explained.
It is worth noting that about 300 Dutch citizens traveled to Syria to join the ranks of the terrorist organization ISIS, according to government data. About 120 of them remained in the area, most of them in camps and detention centers in Syria, Iraq and Turkey.
The Netherlands has pledged to bring jihadists back to justice on its soil, and in December called on its European partners to step up efforts in this regard.
Arrest of a young German woman on charges of supporting a terrorist organization
Germany, the neighbor of the Netherlands, announced today, Friday, the German State Attorney's Office on the arrest of a young German woman from the state of Hesse, on suspicion of supporting a terrorist organization in Syria. The young woman was brought before the investigating judge, who ordered her arrest before a trial, according to a statement from the prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe.
The young woman, whose name or age was not revealed by the public prosecutor, is accused of aiding her husband to travel to Syria and join the ranks of the "Hayat Tahrir a-Sham" organization listed on the terrorist list in the United States, Canada, Britain and Turkey.
According to the public prosecutor, the young woman purchased flight tickets to Turkey for herself and her husband in July 2021, then gave him 5,000 euros and after returning to Germany transferred an additional 1,500 euros to him.