Dutch police have arrested a Syrian refugee in the Netherlands, suspected of having played an important role within Daesh and Jabhat al-Nusra, in particular in the “camp” of Yarmouk south of Damascus, a stronghold of the jihadists during three years. An arrest that does not go unnoticed in the Netherlands, especially since it is far from being the first suspect of war crimes in Syria to be arrested in the kingdom.
From our regional correspondent, Pierre Benazet
The 37-year-old Syrian arrested on Tuesday January 17 is described by the prosecution as having played a leading role in Yarmouk. First as head of security for Jabhat al-Nosra from 2013 to 2015 and then in the same function for the Islamic State group until 2018, during the period when Yarmouk was in the hands of the jihadists.
He is suspected by the Dutch public prosecutor of having participated in the crimes in Syria and would have been in particular responsible for apprehending the enemies of the two organizations. He will be presented on Friday January 20 to a judge on the charge of belonging to a terrorist organization and a criminal organization with the aim of committing war crimes.
The arrest took place near Gorinchem in the south of the Netherlands where the suspect had been living since 2019, the year he applied for asylum in the kingdom. He was apprehended by police officers from a section specializing in international crimes, one of whose missions is expressly ” to prevent the perpetrators from seeking refuge in the Netherlands and residing there with impunity “. This is precisely what worries the Dutch because the press lists a dozen arrests of active criminals in Syria in recent years.