"Is traveling to Syria punishable? For the first time in our and European legal history, you must make a judgment on that."
The public prosecutor who is about to make her plea in the trial of alleged jihadist Mohammed G. (24) in the Rotterdam District Court yesterday seems to want to emphasize in advance the importance of this trial as a matter of principle.
Mohammed G. with his lawyers Serge Weening and Lodewijk Rinsma next to him on the right, the prosecutor on the far left.
G. has previously been declared completely insane by both a psychiatrist and a psychologist. The man suffers from hallucinations, has a chronic psychotic disorder and says he constantly hears the voice of "an old warrior. It was that warrior in his head who 'Mo' says forced him to join the armed struggle in Syria. Experts do not doubt that reading.
"My client Mo is the object of suffering in a feature story about terrorism." - Serge Weening
And although the public prosecutor (OM) does question this, it cannot but adopt the conclusion about the mental state of this alleged jihadist. Hence, yesterday the prosecutor asked the judge not to impose a sentence on Mohammed G., but to have him admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
Is this the end of the case, which was nevertheless seen beforehand as the first test case for the relatively new anti-terrorism article 134a? By no means. Whereas in the Netherlands up to now only terrorism suspects have been charged who had concrete attack plans or really put their money where their mouth is, in the case of this radicalized Muslim he is the first to be prosecuted for acts of preparation. The court in Rotterdam has yet to decide whether Mo behaved criminally by openly chatting with other radicalized youths over the Internet about traveling to Syria, expressing his sympathy for jihadist groups, raising money, booking a ticket to the Turkish-Syrian border, writing a farewell letter, packing survival gear and inflammatory writings, and already canceling the rent on his apartment. All those things he did, the Justice Department discovered in the middle of last year. It eventually led to the arrest of both Mo and two other Syria gang members in November 2012. The latter two, however, have been released for now. According to G.'s lawyer Serge Weening, his client is "the subject of a spectacle story about terrorism. Viewed soberly, he says there is nothing concrete on the table at all. "That he wanted to travel to Syria may have been true, but nothing shows why exactly. He just wanted to help there. Nothing shows that he could or was actually going to join a terrorist group.
Moreover, under international humanitarian martial law, it is not forbidden for a Dutchman to join a resistance group involved in an internal armed conflict in another country," claims the lawyer for the suspect, who by now no longer has a long beard and listened with bowed head yesterday to what the prosecution charged him with, despite his insanity. Justice maintains that the man intended to shed blood in Syria. That his arrest prevented him from doing so simply makes the case difficult. Still, the prosecution seems to have difficulty proving the terror suspicion. Thus, just to be sure, the prosecution added that the 24-year-old not only made preparations for terror, but also allegedly intended to commit substantial violence aimed at "a friendly head of state. After all, technically, the prosecution reasoned, the Netherlands is not at war with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
In two weeks, the judge will rule.
