"Honor killing" behind young Joure woman's (18) death: report

Ryan Al Najjar, an 18-year-old woman from Joure whose body was found a week ago in Leylstad, was the victim of an “honor killing,” people who know the family told the Telegraaf. According to them, Ryan’s father killed her because the very religious family could not tolerate her lifestyle.

The young woman’s body was found in the water along Knardijk on May 28. She had last been seen in Joure on May 22. The police have two suspects in custody, a 22-year-old man from Joure and a 24-year-old man from Leeuwarden. According to the Telegraaf’s sources, one of the suspects is a relative of Ryan.

The sources said that Ryan’s father, Khaled (52), killed her, drove her body to Lelystad, and left her there. He then fled to Germany, where he took a plane to Turkey. From abroad, he informed family members where to find Ryan’s body, the sources said.

The family lived in Idlib, Syria, until 2012. Khaled worked in a shoe factory in Lebanon, and his wife, Sumaia, took care of the children in Syria. They fled to Turkey when the war broke out and arrived as asylum seekers in the Netherlands two years later. They moved to Joure in 2017.

In an interview with the Leeuwarder Courant, the family was described as a “model family.” A son told the newspaper that he’d like to tell people uncertain about Muslims to “give us the opportunity to get to know each other.” Khaled said he hoped to return to Syria when there was peace one day. Until then, he wanted his kids to “grow up in freedom.”

One of Ryan’s sisters wrote about her on social media after her death, according to the Telegraaf. In Arabic, she posted: “My sister is in the protection of Allah. O Allah, forgive her. Have mercy on her and forgive her, for she doesn’t know anything.”