Rechtbank Den Haag

Inhoudsindicatie

English translation of ECLI:NL:RBDHA:2026:14886 The accused is on trial in the Netherlands for complicity in the war crime of recruiting a child soldier. The district court has imposed a seven-year prison sentence. It concerns a woman from [place] who travelled to Syria in 2014 with her two children, aged 13 and 14. There, the boy, who was by then 14 years old, was taken into IS training camps and subsequently into an IS police unit. The district court finds that, by staying in IS-controlled territory in Syria, the accused provided the opportunity for her son to be recruited by IS. The district court has ruled that the accused's role constitutes complicity in the war crime of recruiting a child soldier. The district court further ruled that the accused participated in the terrorist organisation IS and took preparatory steps to that end. In reaching this conclusion, the district court took particular account of the fact that her participation also consisted of making her then 14-year-old son available as a child soldier for IS, and that she allowed her then 15-year-old daughter to marry an IS fighter. The accused was also convicted of withholding due care for her son, resulting in his death. The accused's son was killed at the age of 16 during the fighting between IS and coalition forces near Raqqa. She also used deception to remove her children from the parental authority she shared with their father by taking them to Turkey under the pretence of a holiday and travelling on from there to Syria. Upon her arrival in Syria in 2014, the accused immediately married an IS fighter and remained in the caliphate for a long time. In 2024, she and her daughter were transferred to the Netherlands from a Kurdish reception camp.

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