Case: Unknown -

A Syrian man was accused of having been a member of Liwa’ al-Thuwar Khan Shaykhun between January 2011 and September 2019. He was further said to have committed the war crime of pillaging for allegedly selling unlawfully seized items and cars as well as allegedly committing the war crimes of outrage upon personal dignity of a deceased person for allegedly holding the decapitated heads of persons while being video-taped and making humiliating comments. These suspicions were based on various reports that the Dutch police has received from several witnesses as well as video clips. After the man came to the Netherland in 2019, he was arrested on 6 April 2021 based on the ongoing investigations. However, on 26 April 2024, the court of first instance fully acquitted him of all charges due to lack of evidence. The court considered the testimonies unreliable as it found that it cannot be excluded that some of the witnesses had an interest in incriminating the defendant due to family rivalry between two of the witnesses and the defendant. Based on the forensic analysis of the video clip and the defendant’s voice, the court also found that it cannot be established beyond reasonable that the person in the video is indeed the defendant. Furthermore, the court of first instance found that there was no sufficient proof to find the existence of a terrorist organisation in this specific town, let alone the defendant’s participation in any armed force around the year 2011 as the prosecutors have stated in their indictment.