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Dutch prosecutors demanded Friday that a Muslim father and his two sons face up to 25 years in prison for allegedly drowning an 18-year-old family member because they believed her “Western” behavior was bringing shame to the family.
The body of Syrian woman Ryan Al Najjar was found submerged in a lake with hands and feet bound tightly on May 28, 2024, near Joure in northern Netherlands, six days after disappearing, according to authorities. Officials arrested her father and two brothers, then aged 22 and 24, and charged them in connection with her killing, which prosecutors said likely happened on May 22.
“They saw Ryan as a burden that had to be removed,” the Public Prosecution Service said Friday. “Just because she was a young woman who wanted to live her own life.”
Authorities said her male relatives, who come from what they described as a “strict” Islamic family, allegedly killed her after believing she was “behaving too Western in the eyes of her family.” Al Najjar was reportedly targeted after refusing to wear a headscarf in public-like settings.
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Ryan Al Najjar was murdered in May 2024 in the Netherlands. (National Police Corps of the Netherlands)
“The immediate cause of her death appears to be a live video on TikTok, showing Ryan without a headscarf and wearing makeup,” prosecutors said Friday. “The video seriously embarrasses the family, according to their posts, as it does not fit within their traditional views.”
“Once the suspects were aware of the video, they started looking for Ryan,” the authorities added. “According to the Public Prosecution Service, her brothers visited her in Rotterdam and convinced her to come along to a remote location the night before her murder. She was taken to Knardijk, where their father joined. There she was killed.”
Local media NL Times identified the brothers as Mohamed Al Najjar and Muhanad, and their 53-year-old father as Khaled. All three were charged with murdering the young woman, while their father was accused of orchestrating the killing before likely fleeing to Syria, prosecutors said.
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Courtroom sketch of suspects Mohammed Al N. (R) and Muhanad Al N. during a hearing in court. The two brothers and their father, Khaled Al N., are suspected of murdering their sister and daughter, Ryan Al Najjar. (Hollandse Hoogte/Shutterstock)
Investigators say Al Najjar was taken to a remote park where “no one for miles around could have heard her” cries for help. Evidence showed signs of strangulation and drowning, and approximately 60 feet of tape had been used to bind her before she was thrown into the water alive. Prosecutors reported that Khaled’s DNA was also found under his daughter’s fingernails, suggesting he was present during the killing.
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Ryan Al Najjar’s body was found in the Oostvaardersplassen nature reserve in Lelystad, Netherlands. (Pierre Crom)
“[Khaled] fled to Syria immediately after the murder and left his sons to take the blame. Cowardly,” the Public Prosecution Service wrote in a statement Friday, according to NL Times. “Khaled has completely destroyed his family.”
Dutch authorities added that extraditing Khaled may be difficult because he married a woman in Syria since Al Najjar’s death, the outlet reported.
The Public Prosecution Service has recommended a 25-year prison sentence for the father and 20 years for each of the two brothers.
The court is scheduled to issue its ruling on Jan. 5.
Digital reached out to the Public Prosecution Service for more information.
