According to the Public Prosecution Service, Samir was part of the terrorist organization IS because of his help to the women. Some of the women he helped also thought very radically and were part of the caliphate. “Instead of being on the front line himself, he has found another way of fighting,” said the officer.
Around 2019, Samir A. collected over a ton from relatives of the Dutch and Belgian jihad brides. He passed it on to people smugglers and managed to get 25 women to escape from the prison camp in northern Syria. According to the officer, he has financed terrorism with this.
36-year-old A. is considered a veteran in the Dutch jihad scene. He was previously sentenced to nine years in prison for an attack plan and was released in September 2013. He was a member of the Hofstadgroep, a network of radical Muslim youth. Mohammed B., the murderer of cinematographer Theo van Gogh, was also included in that group.
Samir A. is still in contact with him, and also with the convicted Arnhem terrorists who wanted to commit an attack on an open-air festival. Samir says in an interview that he wants all Islamic countries to live under Islamic law. He says that he now rejects IS and that he has started to think more leniently, but shows understanding for the burning alive in a cage of a Jordanian pilot by IS.
The investigation started with an article in De Telegraaf and NRC in 2019, in which Samir and his helper Bilal L. admitted that they collected money for the women and funneled it to the camps through prohibited underground banking. They saw it as humanitarian aid. Justice sees it differently.
It didn’t matter to Samir whether the women were still radical and dangerous. Most of the women helped were on the terrorism sanctions list, which prohibits any financial aid to him. “There is no terrorism without money,” said the officer.
It is certain that a number of women expressed themselves very radically until the very end. Like Mandy S, she asked in an online message on 2020 to stay with the jihad fighters. Angela B. from Soesterberg also felt fine in the caliphate until the very end. She “fought for her faith while others surrendered.” Nabila A defended herself from the IS caliphate against her sister IS by telephone, defended attacks in Paris and fired her own firearm in the ceiling to underline that. Her husband can be seen in photos with a severed head. Some of the women are now back in the Netherlands, some have already been convicted. Others are still in Syria.
Justice finds that Samir let the women escape with a great risk that they would rejoin the terrorist group. The women who remained with IS until last were highly regarded by the terror group and their sons were hailed as the IS fighters of the future.
The AIVD already established that helping IS women was the most important way for Dutch jihadists to contribute to the armed struggle in Syria. Samir said in a chat with an IS fighter that he was ashamed that he was in the Netherlands instead of in the battle zone. He called it “a religious duty to free prisoners.”
Samir A. himself believes that he did not act criminally and that he helped the women there with their basic necessities and to get out of the camps. According to him, the women had had enough of IS and the chance was nil that they would rejoin the terrorist organization.
On Thursday, Samir A. will have the last word. The judge will make a ruling on August 30.