The Public Prosecution Service (OM) has demanded four years in prison against two female Syria travelers. The demand was announced on Tuesday at the court in Rotterdam, ANP news agency reports. Meryem S. (34) and her mother Naima el-O. (54) from Zoetermeer are suspected of involvement with terrorist organization IS.
S. traveled to the conflict zone in Syria in 2013. About S., the public prosecutor said that she “knew what was going on there” but “willingly and knowingly went to the battle zone”, to a man she knew was a jihadist. El-O. traveled in 2014, together with her 15-year-old son. A year later he died in the caliphate. The woman says she wanted to pick up her daughter and granddaughter in Syria and then take them back to the Netherlands. The officer believes that there is not enough evidence for that story.
In 2021, the Public Prosecution Service, the AIVD intelligence service and the NCTV anti-terrorism coordinator urged that Dutch Syria travelers be repatriated and prosecuted. According to the authorities, there was a risk that travelers could escape prosecution. In February of last year, five IS women, including S. and El-O., and their eleven children were picked up from the Syrian refugee camp al-Roj. On Wednesday and next week, the cases of the other three wives will be served.
Also read this analysis: The Netherlands did not pick up its IS women. Now they escape