Brothers still deny involvement in 18-year-old sister's honor killing

Mohamed (23) and Muhanad Al N. (25) still deny any involvement in the honor killing of their 18-year-old sister, Ryan. The young woman’s body was found by a passerby in a swamp pool in Lelystad on May 28 last year. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) believes that her father and two brothers murdered her for not living up to the standards set by the family. The two brothers will remain in custody until the next hearing in September, the court in Lelystad ruled, NOS reports.

Ryan disappeared from her family home in Joure on May 22. Her body was found a week later. According to the OM, the young woman was gagged and tied up and thrown into the water to drown. Her father’s DNA was found under her fingernails. Her brothers blame their father for her death.

The father is still at large. He is believed to have fled to Syria. He allegedly sent the Telegraaf two emails, confessing to his daughter’s murder and saying that his sons were not involved.

But the OM believes that the father enlisted his sons to pick Ryan up, drive her to a remote location, and throw her weighted body into the water. According to the OM, the three men killed Ryan because she behaved too Western and “shamed” her family.

The brothers’ lawyers requested that they be released from pre-trial custody. They have been detained for almost 13 months. Both insist that they “had nothing to do” with their sister’s murder. But the court ruled that they’ll stay in custody until the next hearing in September.

The trial against them will start in November.