Alleged Islamic State fighter faces Dutch war crimes charges

An alleged Dutch-born Islamic State militant went on trial in the Netherlands on Monday for war crimes in Iraq and Syria, including breaches of the Geneva Conventions, after posing with a crucified body and sharing images of dead victims online.

It is the first trial in the Netherlands dealing with war crimes by an alleged Islamic State militant.

There is no international tribunal to prosecute widespread atrocities during Syria’s civil war which began on 2011, but prosecutors in several European countries have put on trial nationals who joined militant groups in the Middle East.

According to European police agency Europol, some 5,000 Europeans went to fight in Syria and Iraq, of whom some 1,500 have returned. Roughly 300 Dutch nationals joined the armed fight in Iraq and Syria, prosecutors said.

Oussama Achraf Akhlafa, 24, faces allegations of violating international law, after allegedly joining IS militants in Mosul in Iraq, and Raqqa in Syria, between 2014 and 2016.

He is being tried under so-called universal jurisdiction, which enables war crimes to be prosecuted regardless of where they were committed.

Akhlafa is charged with breaking international law on the rules of armed conflict by violating the personal dignity of war victims, as well as membership in a terrorist organization.

Prosecutors said Akhlafa posed next to the crucified body of a man on a wooden cross and distributed pictures of an IS militant holding the head of a dead Kurdish fighter and the body of a dead woman with a foot on her.

A list of Islamic State fighters on payroll recovered in Mosul names Akhlafa as one of 18 Dutch nationals, said prosecutor Nicole Vogelenzang.

“According to the list Akhlafa was a fighter in Mosul for three months in the IS sniper brigade,” she said. The personal information is so “detailed that is could not be about anyone other than Akhlafa.”

“He was there and knew Islamic Sate was a terrorist group,” she said. “He ...even volunteered to carry out suicide attacks.”

In a statement, Akhlafa said he joined IS after becoming homeless in the Netherlands, but never hurt anyone.

“If I didn’t get in the photo I would be seen as disloyal” by IS, he told the court. “I posed in the photo. I take all responsibility for that. I am sorry and it was not my intent to humiliate this man.”

SNIPER

“I understand it creates an image, but madame, I didn’t kill anyone ... IS wouldn’t even give me a weapon.”

The judge read out witness testimony and quotes from online chats with the defendant in which he bragged about killings and said he was a sniper. “Sniping is the funnest thing there is, but it is highly dangerous,” the judge quoted him as writing.

The defendant said his remark was intended to impress women.

A second defendant, 24-year-old Reda Nidalha, also went on trial on Monday, accused of membership in a terrorist organization and recruiting radical jihadists via Facebook.

Dutch-born Nidalha, who sat in a black t-shirt, which a shaved head and thick beard, was questioned by judges for hours at the opening of hearings on Monday.

He denied allegations of recruiting, saying he had been joking when he chatted on Facebook about friends joining him in Raqqa, the self-declared capital of Islamic State’s “caliphate”.

“In 2014, I went to Syria to help people, women and children,” he told a panel of judges. “I didn’t join to fight. I provided basic medical assistance.”

Nidalha denied accusations of trying to recruit four people for Islamic State, saying the Facebook chats were “not serious.”