AMSTERDAM: Dutch judges on Tuesday convicted a Daesh militant of war crimes in Iraq and Syria and sentenced him to more than 7 years in prison after he posed with a crucified body and shared images of dead victims online.
Netherlands-born Oussama Achraf Akhlafa, 24, was found guilty of membership in a terrorist organization. He fought alongside Daesh militants in Mosul in Iraq and in Raqqa, Syria, between 2014 and 2016.
Prosecutors had sought a sentence of 7 years, 8 months.
The court said Akhlafa had posed smiling next to the crucified body of a man who had been executed by Daesh, and had posted the picture on Facebook.
BACKGROUND
The case is the first trial in the Netherlands dealing with war crimes committed by a Daesh militant.
“He violated the personal dignity of the deceased, thereby breaching the Geneva Convention,” the court said, in a reference to the treaties protecting the rights of war victims. Akhlafa was tried under so-called universal jurisdiction, which enables war crimes to be prosecuted regardless of where they were committed, in the first trial in the Netherlands dealing with war crimes committed by a Daesh militant.
A second defendant, Dutch-born 24-year-old Reda Nidalha, was sentenced to 4-1/2 years in prison for membership of a terrorist organization.
