Tajik man sentenced to 5.5 years for recruiting for ISIS in Netherlands

A 31-year-old man from Tajikistan was sentenced to five and a half years in prison on Monday for recruiting members for Islamic State (IS) across multiple countries, including the Netherlands, to allegedly prepare attacks. The Rotterdam court said the man posed a serious threat to Dutch society and had sought to raise as much money as possible for the terrorist group.

The Public Prosecution Service (Openbaar Ministerie, OM) had requested an eight-year sentence. Prosecutors allege the man, identified as Abdusamad A., was affiliated with Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), the Afghan branch of IS.

A. was arrested in Eindhoven in July 2023 after Dutch intelligence agency AIVD flagged him as a suspected IS member with instructions to prepare an attack. Although no concrete attack plans were uncovered, prosecutors deemed the threat credible enough to intervene.

According to the court, A. maintained connections with like-minded individuals in multiple countries and actively tried to recruit others. “His arrival in the Netherlands must also be seen in that light,” the judges said. “The defendant is therefore a major danger to Dutch society.”

As part of a covert police operation, A. allegedly pledged allegiance to IS while speaking to an undercover informant. When questioned in court, he claimed the statement was not genuine. “Maybe I did that. But then it was to make an impression. I felt that they liked this organization,” he said. A. denied having ties to IS, saying, “I have nothing to do with IS.”

The court determined that A. operated as part of a larger network. The Dutch police collaborated with German authorities in the investigation, as A. had contacts in the German state of Nordrhein-Westfalen. In 2023, German authorities arrested seven suspects in that state for allegedly planning an attack.

Prosecutors also said A. had previously tried to join IS in Syria in 2016 but was stopped by Turkish authorities and deported to Ukraine, where he allegedly became involved with an IS cell operating there.

A.’s then-wife was arrested alongside him in 2023 but was acquitted last year. The couple had lived in the Netherlands since 2022 and are now divorced.

A.’s defense attorney argued that the prosecution’s case was weak. “There is fairly little that has emerged from this large-scale investigation,” the lawyer said. “Insufficient in any case to convict him of membership in a terrorist organization.”