Sentencing confirmed for Amsterdam girl's kidnappers; Insiya still gone 9 years later
The case against five men who kidnapped Amsterdam girl Insiya nine years ago will not be retried, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday. The sentences imposed are upheld and final, the highest court said, following the recommendation from the Advocate General in July.
On 29 September 2016, multiple men forcibly abducted the then 2-year-old girl from her grandmother’s home in Amsterdam. Her father, Shehzad Hemani, the main suspect, hired an international team for the kidnapping and took her to India. The now 11-year-old girl is still believed to be there. Her mother, Nadia Rashid, has not had contact with her for nine years.
The Public Prosecution Service (OM) called the kidnapping a thoroughly planned operation. Previous courts sentenced six kidnappers to up to four years in prison. One of them is Hemani’s cousin, Imran S., who is in India. Hemani was sentenced to 8.5 years in prison on appeal in May 2024. He, too, is in India. Despite repeated requests from the OM, India refuses to extradite them.
Hemani had filed a cassation petition with the Supreme Court, arguing that he had not received a fair trial. Due to the arrest warrant against him, he chose not to attend his trial in person and wanted to participate via a video link. The Court of Appeal rejected that request. According to the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal was permitted to make this decision, and that was not grounds for retrying the case.
Over the past nine years, Nadia Rashid has done everything in her power to get her daughter back. She took legal action in the Netherlands and India, contacted Ministers in both countries, asked Queen Maxima to intervene, appealed to international agencies, and posted countless videos worldwide in the hope that one would reach Insiya.
Rashid attended the Supreme Court verdict. She told RTL Nieuws that this ruling “confirms what I’ve known for nine years: that the perpetrators must be punished and that we can now simply call them perpetrators.” Despite nine years of consecutive courts confirming their sentencing, she has still not been reunited with her girl. “The perpetrators have now been brought to justice, but this doesn’t bring Insiya back,” she said.
