Public prosecutor pins evidence hopes on IS payroll information
The Dutch public prosecution department has payroll lists with the names of people who worked for IS, including jihadis who have returned to the Netherlands, the AD said on Friday.
The department is using the lists, which cover the period 2016 to June 2017, in court cases against Dutch jihadis, the paper said. The documents come from the FBI.
Dutch jihadis face jail on their return for being members of a terrorist organisation but actual evidence is hard to come by. Many claim to have worked as cooks or nurses, rather than to have taken part in actual fighting.
One Dutch national whose name is said to appear on the lists is Maseh N, who returned from Syria at the end of last year. The department hopes to use this as evidence that N did work for IS, the AD said.
He has told officials that he wanted to return to the Netherlands as soon as he got there in 2015 and claims to have been jailed after refusing to fight. He was caught crossing into Turkey from Syria in October last year and has been in custody since then.
The Dutch security service estimates 310 Dutch nationals have gone to IS territory since 310, of whom around one third were female. Around 140 are still said to be there, 55 have returned and 80 have been killed. Some 35 are said to be in prison or refugee camps.
In addition, 175 minors with a claim on Dutch nationality are in the region, most of whom were born there.
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