Dutch sergeant suspected of joining ISIS placed on national terrorist list

Ahmed M., a sergeant of the Dutch Air Force who defected in 2015 and is suspected of joining terrorist organization ISIS, was placed on the national terrorist list, RTL Nieuws reports. This means that his assets were frozen and he can no longer get money from anyone else in the Netherlands.

The 28-year-old Iraqi born man was stationed at Gilze-Rijen air base. He had access to system information about the Dutch Apache attack helicopters. For a long time there was uncertainty about whether or not M. still lived. But the fact that he was added to the terrorist list seems to indicate that he is still alive, according to the broadcaster.

To date M. is the only actively serving Dutch soldier known to have defected to join a jihadist group in the Syrian civil war. In 2015, shortly after news of his defection became known, Prime Minister Mark Rutte caused controversy by saying that it would be better that he died in the conflict zone, rather than returning to the Netherlands. Opposition parties D66, GroenLinks, SP and ChristenUnie were all shocked by this statement.

In addition to M., another four names were also added to the list. The Dutch national terrorist list now contains over 100 names.