ARNHEM - The alleged Arnhem jihadists Hakim B. (22) and Mohamed el A. (27) were acquitted Monday of preparing terrorist and other crimes. There is also not enough evidence for conspiracy to commit terrorist crimes, according to the Arnhem court.
Hakim B. (l.) and Mohamed el A. did not want to go to Syria to fight, they say. What the combat gear in their car was doing they could not explain.
The duo was intercepted in Germany in August 2013. Mohamed and Hakim were carrying 15,000 euros in cash, balaclavas, combat clothing, walkie-talkies and solar cell chargers. Their brothers Abdelkarim el A. and Khalid B. are already fighting in Syria, presumably for Jabhat al-Nusra. Abdelkarim - aka Abu Mohammed, aka Muhajiri Sháám - already once called for firm action against the Dutch government. He is one of the Dutch jihadists on the national terrorism list.
Mohamed el A. said he wanted to go to Syria to help people and settle in an Islamic country. Hakim B. stated that he was only on his way to Turkey for vacation. He might meet his brother Khalid B. at the Syrian border to give him items.
Of Mohamed el A., the court believes based on Skype conversations, WhatsApp messages and videos that he was on his way to Syria to settle and help his brother. But it is not established that he went to fight a violent battle. Of Hakim B., there is no evidence at all that he was going to Syria.
The court believes Mohamed el A. admired his brother, fervently dreamed of an Islamic state and that he might have eventually turned from a passive to active jihadist in Syria. "But there is no evidence now of preparing concrete terror. And having a thought or ideology alone is not punishable," the court stressed.
The prosecution had demanded two years in prison against both of them. The court published a video after the verdict in which the press judge justified the sentence.
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