Could a Dutch Mercenary Be Charged with Murder for Killing Islamic State Militants?

When a Dutch man decided to join Kurdish forces in Syria to help them beat back the Islamic State, he probably thought he would return to the Netherlands to a hero’s welcome.

Turns out he returned to murder charges instead.

Dutch prosecutors believe the 47-year-old, whose name has not been released due to the country’s strict privacy laws, killed Islamic State militants in Syria. Although he is a former Dutch soldier, he reportedly traveled there without any instruction from the military. If he did in fact kill Islamic State militants, that could earn him prison time in the Netherlands.

He appeared before an investigating judge in the city of Rotterdam on Friday, but was released after agreeing to turn over his passport, which the judge said would ensure he did not travel back to Syria.

Still, the possibility of a full-fledged criminal trial is very real. Prosecutors said Friday there is “an important difference between Dutch nationals who travel to Syria on their own to fight against IS and Dutch soldiers who train Iraqi and Kurdish forces.”

The Netherlands has backed a campaign against the Islamic State, and even sends Dutch soldiers to train Kurdish forces. But Amsterdam does not encourage Dutch nationals to join the Kurds on their own. Still, some 100 Westerners are thought to have joined them in Iraq and Syria in the past two years. In 2015, at least one Canadian and one Briton were killed in battle.
But whoever this 47-year-old is, he’s not the only Dutch committed to backing up the Kurds. In October 2014, members of No Surrender, a Dutch biker gang, announced gang members had traveled to Mosul to fight the Islamic State.
At the time, Dutch public prosecutor spokesman Wim de Bruin defended the bikers.

“Joining a foreign armed force was previously punishable; now it’s no longer forbidden,” he told AFP. “You just can’t join a fight against the Netherlands.”