Police detained 26-year-old Mohammed G. in Maastricht last Friday on suspicion of plans to travel to Syria or Iraq. There he wanted to join IS, a spokesman for the Public Prosecutor's Office (OM) confirmed reports in the Limburg newspapers.

The suspect was arrested while preparing for exit and trying to obtain a false passport, the prosecution said. He was placed in jail and will be arraigned later Monday before the magistrate judge.

The man had been arrested earlier this year on suspicion of participating in terrorist activities, but was released. On that occasion, however, his passport was confiscated. Proceedings were still pending on that, his lawyer Serge Weening said Monday.

In July, police began a new investigation into the alleged "out-of-towner" partly after information from the General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD). That led to his arrest Friday.

In 2013, the man was also arrested in Rotterdam, where he was living at the time. He was about to travel to IS territory to participate in the armed struggle. The court declared him guilty but insanity. According to the newspapers, it was because of paranoid schizophrenia. His lawyer could not say anything about that.

According to his counselor, he was then admitted to a psychiatric clinic for a year. He then went to his family in Iraq.

After an unsuccessful attempt to travel into Turkey, he returned to Maastricht in March. There he found shelter with the Salvation Army. Incidentally, that was not where police picked him up on Friday, his lawyer said.

The defendant(s) in this case are assisted by: