Rotterdam resident suspected of Hamas membership to be extradited to Germany

Nazih R. will be extradited to Germany, the international legal assistance chamber of the court in Amsterdam ruled on Tuesday, AD reports. The 56-year-old Rotterdam man is suspected in a German terrorism investigation.

According to the German authorities, R. has been a member of the Palestinian terrorism group Hamas for years. The Dutch police arrested him in Rotterdam on December 14 at their German colleagues’ request.

The German police also arrested three other men in this case. They allegedly have close ties with Hamas. According to the German authorities, R. and the other three suspects went searching for a hidden weapons cache in Poland multiple times with the intention of attacking Jewish institutions in Europe. They never found the weapons.

The Amsterdam court ruled that R. should be tried in Germany as the alleged crimes happened on German and Polish territory. Germany has agreed that, if convicted, R., who has Dutch nationality, can serve any prison sentence he receives in the Netherlands.

R. denies all involvement in terrorism and the accusations against him. During a hearing two weeks ago, he told the judges that he has lived in the Netherlands since 1994 and has been politically active since 2000, advocating for the Palestinian cause. “I’m just trying to ensure that we can return to our Palestine. We are working on this with all Palestinians in Europe,” he said.