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.

Read more: NL Times