A man raised in Eindhoven who joined the Islamic State (IS) in 2024 may face the death penalty in Somalia. Hassan Attar (32) was arrested there in June and is now awaiting trial in a prison in Puntland, a region in the north of the East African country. “I was brainwashed. I didn’t think about the consequences,” says Attar.
Puntland is a partially independent region in Somalia that has waged a fierce battle over the past year against Islamic State (IS) fighters based in the Cal Miskaad mountains.
One of the fighters who has been arrested is Hassan Attar. The British newspaper The Times said Attar as he awaits trial in prison. He said he was manipulated into joining IS. “I was brainwashed. I didn’t think about the consequences,” he says.
Attar also told the British newspaper that he was well aware of the atrocities the terrorist organization committed in Iraq and Syria, among others. Terror attacks, public executions, kidnappings, rapes and torture. When the British reporter asks whether the men Attar lived with would behead the Times journalist, as they have done to a number of journalists in the past, Attar calmly says, “Yes.”
“I was fantasizing about things in my head and hearing voices.”
Attar has Turkish parents and grew up in Eindhoven, where he lived with his mother and sister. According to The Times, he describes himself as autistic and impressionable. He allegedly had bad friends who stole and used drugs. When Attar was in his mid-twenties, he ended up in prison in the Netherlands for drug charges.
There, he said, he became radicalized by fellow prisoners who introduced him to Islamic extremism and IS propaganda material. Attar will be in prison for eighteen months when he goes to a psychiatric institution, because the judge has also given him a TBS order. “I was fantasizing about things in my head and hearing voices.”
Four years later, Attar is released and his Dutch citizenship is revoked. According to Attar, because of his previous crimes, but he probably has more to his name. Because this can only be done if someone has committed a war or terrorist crime.
“I decided to go because I thought they really wanted to help me.”
Attar leaves the Netherlands behind and moves to Turkey, where he also has citizenship. There he becomes more and more radicalized. He works in a textile factory and watches ISIS propaganda videos in his spare time. One evening he sees an email address in a video and starts corresponding with a certain Abu Khalid.
He tells Attar that IS is reviving in Puntland, Somalia, and that Attar should join them. “They promised me: ‘We will give you everything. We will give you money. We will give you a house. A big house, a beautiful house. You can get married. You will have a good life,'” Attar says now that he is in prison.
“In Turkey I was angry. I was depressed. I decided to go because I thought they really wanted to help me. ‘We have hospitals. We will take care of you. If you have no friends, we will be your friends. We will be your family.’”
But when Attar arrived in Somalia in the fall of 2024, the reality turned out to be completely different. IS members confiscated his phone, watch, passport and $800. There was also no house of his own for Attar. IS fighters lived in caves with sometimes as many as 120 men together.
“I thought: How can you live like that? Animals live like that. But for them it was normal.”
“I thought: What the hell is going on here? How can you live like this? Animals live like that. But for them it was normal.” Attar claims opposite The Times that he had asked to leave and return to Turkey, but his request was denied.
In December 2024, his military training was cut short when Puntland’s armed forces launched an offensive into IS-held territory. Due to his lack of combat experience, he was assigned a position in a ten-man logistics team tasked with supplying the fighters at the front. Puntland’s intelligence service confirms this claim.
In June, Attar was captured while fetching water. He is now awaiting trial, where he could be sentenced to death if found guilty.
