Dutch court convicts ISIS militant of committing war crimes in Iraq, Syria

Last Update: 2019-07-24 00:00:00 - Source: Baghdad Post

Dutch judges on Tuesday convicted an ISIS militant of war crimes in Iraq and Syria and sentenced him to 7-1/2 years in prison after he posed with a crucified body and shared images of dead victims online.

Netherlands-born Oussama Achraf Akhlafa, 24, was found guilty of membership of a terrorist organization. He fought alongside ISIS militants in Mosul in Iraq and in Raqqa, Syria, between 2014 and 2016.

Prosecutors had sought a sentence of 7 years, 8 months.

The court said Akhlafa had posed smiling next to the crucified body of a man who had been executed by ISIS, and had posted the picture on Facebook.

"He violated the personal dignity of the deceased, thereby breaching the Geneva Convention," the court said, in a reference to the treaties protecting the rights of war victims.

Akhlafa was tried under so-called universal jurisdiction, which enables war crimes to be prosecuted regardless of where they were committed, in the first trial in the Netherlands dealing with war crimes committed by an ISIS militant.

A second defendant, Dutch-born 24-year-old Reda Nidalha, was sentenced to 4-1/2 years in prison for membership of a terrorist organization.