Two Dutch jihadists arrested upon arrival at Schiphol

Suspected Dutch jihadists Reda N. and Oussama A. were arrested at Schiphol airport on Tuesday evening, immediately after their plane from Turkey landed. "When the plane landed, they got out of the back door and were taken away by van", journalist Olaf Koens, who was in the plane with them, said to RTL Nieuws.

Reda N. from Leiden and Oussama A. from Utrecht, both 23 years old, are suspected of participating in a terrorist organization. They left for Syria in 2014 and took part in the Syrian civil war. Late in 2016 they crossed the border into Turkey and were arrested there. The Turkish courts sentenced them to six years in prison last month. They were released while awaiting their appeal. As the sentence is not yet irrevocable, they can also be prosecuted in the Netherlands, according to the Prosecutor.

On Tuesday the Turkish police brought the two foreign rebel fighters to the airport, where they were awaited by the Marechaussee - a policing force that works as part of the Dutch military. "In the plane to the Netherlands they were sitting in the back of the plane, each on one side, with broad-shouldered Marechaussee officers in between", Koens said to the broadcaster. According to him, the two looked "pretty good". "Not hungry or extremely thin or tired."