The public prosecution department is to appeal against the not guilty verdict handed down to a 20-year-old woman charged with recruiting six people to take part in jihad.

The court found Shukri F not guilty of any criminal offences, saying that while it ‘does not doubt the 20-year-old woman’s extreme jihadist tendancies,’ encouraging women to travel to Syria and marry jihadis is not the same as recruitment.

Her husband, also aged 20, was jailed for three years for joining an Islamic militia in Syria and taking part in jihad. Maher H is the first jihadi to be jailed in the Netherlands on his return from the Middle East.

Meanwhile, the country’s chief public prosecutor Harman Bolhaar told television current affairs show Nieuwsuur on Monday night that police had found an automatic weapon and ‘information about explosives’ during recent searches of suspected jihadis’ homes.

The finds are ‘disturbing’ but it is not yet certain if the suspects were planning an attack in the Netherlands. ‘That is still being investigated,’ he said.

Some 45 to 50 investigations are currently underway into 70 potential jihadis and recruiters and this number will increase, Bolhaar told the programme.