The Public Prosecution Service (OM) has demanded a six-year prison sentence against former Hofstadgroep member Samir A. According to the OM, he would have collected money for women and children in the IS area, among other things.
According to the Public Prosecution Service, that money was intended to finance terrorism. “A. could not only know that, it even seems that it was his intention,” said the public prosecutor on Wednesday in the secure court in Rotterdam.
The Public Prosecution Service accuses A. of sending money or helping a group of about 25 IS women escape from camps in Syria with the help of an underground banker. A large number of them are on the national terrorism sanctions list. A. collected a total of 107,000 dollars and sent them to Syria, the majority of which went to Dutch women. Some of them are back in the Netherlands, some are probably staying in one of the last remaining IS strongholds in Syria.
35-year-old A. is also suspected of participating in the jihadist terrorist organization IS. He was arrested in mid-2020. A. denies any link to terrorism. He sees transferring money as humanitarian aid, because the Dutch government did not help the women. He said it was mainly to help the children.
His lawyer Tamara Buruma pleads for acquittal. “A. could not accept that children died in the camps. He was in a position to do something about it, because of his knowledge of the language and the region.”
A. previously convicted of terrorism
The officers do not believe A.’s humanitarian motives. The women A. supported were still actively involved with IS and adhered to that philosophy – they wrote about it on social media, among other things. “A. thinks he is above the law.” They call him “calculating and smart”. “He has an answer for everything.” Experts see a major risk of recurrence.
A. was previously sentenced to nine years in prison for terrorism and was released in September 2013. He was a member of the Hofstadgroep, a network of radical Islamic youths. Mohammed B., the murderer of filmmaker Theo van Gogh, was also included in that group.
The court plans to rule on August 30.
–
