A teenage girl was gagged, tied up and thrown right into a swamp to drown in an honour killing over her Western behaviour, a court within the Netherlands heard.
Ryan Al Najjar’s body was found gagged, together with her hands sure behind her back and ankles taped together in a wetland in the town of Lelystad in May last yr.
The 18-year-old had been missing for per week when a passerby discovered her submerged stays.
The Public Prosecution Service formally designated the teenager’s killing as an honour crime.
Her brothers, Mohamed, 23, and Muhanad Al Najjar, 25, have been placed on trial for her murder, while her father, Khaled al-N, will probably be tried in absentia after fleeing to Syria.
Prosecutors accused him of ordering Ryan’s killing because she ‘brought shame to the family’ by behaving too ‘Western’ and dating.
DNA belonging to him was found under her fingernails, indicating that she had put up a fight.
The trial began on Thursday, but Ryan’s brothers blame their father for her death.
Khaled al-N allegedly sent two emails to Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, confessing to her murder and saying that his sons weren’t involved.
But prosecutors dispute that version of events. They claim that he enlisted his sons to select Ryan up, drive her to a distant location, and throw her weighted body into the water.
Mohamed and Muhanad Al Najjar were arrested soon after her body was found and have been in custody since.
The victim’s family told Nieuwsuur they need her father to be tried within the Netherlands.
An announcement by the Dutch Ministry of Justice, cited by the media outlet, said: ‘The probabilities for criminal cooperation with Syria are currently not available.
‘The criminal law authorities required for this cooperation should not (yet) operational in Syria.’
But Syrian justice minister Mazhar al-Wais said he has up to now not received a request from Dutch authorities and that he’s prepared to supply legal assistance in accordance with the regulations.
What’s honour killing?
An honour killing is the murder of an individual by members of their family or social group, who imagine the victim has brought or may bring shame or dishonour upon the family or community.
In England and Wales, there have been 2,949 honour-based abuse offences recorded by police within the yr ending March 2025.
This represents a 7% increase compared with the yr ending March 2024, when 2,755 offences were recorded.
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