Facts
Ahmad al-Y commanded Ahrar al-Sham fighters and took part in an offensive in the city of Hama in April 2015. During this time, he allegedly subjected persons who were hors de combat to humiliating and degrading treatment by posing with the corpse of an enemy fighter and kicking the body of another. In addition, he appeared in a video, posted on YouTube, “singing to celebrate the deaths of fighters and referring to them as dogs”.
Ahmad al-Y. entered the Netherlands as an asylum seeker in October 2019.
Procedure
On 22 October 2019, Dutch police arrested Ahmad al-Y in an asylum center in Ter Apel, on suspicion of outrages upon personal dignity constituting a war crime. According to the Dutch Public Prosecutor, Ahmad al-Y was flagged by German authorities in 2015 when he spent a short time seeking asylum there before returning to Syria due to personal circumstances.
On 15 January 2020, Ahmad al-Y was heard before the High Secure Court in Amsterdam. The Public Prosecutor found a YouTube video showing Ahmad al-Y celebrating the death of government soldiers. The defense lawyer rejected this evidence and argued it would not be possible to ascertain that his client could be identified on the video.
On 21 April 2021, The Hague District Court found Ahmad al-Y. guilty of membership in a terrorist organization and committing a war crime of assault on personal dignity by putting his foot on a corpse, making a kicking movement to another and by celebrating the deaths of the deceased adversaries while referring to them as “dogs”. He was sentenced to six years in prison. The prosecution appealed the decision.
Appeal hearings commenced in October 2022 and came to a close in November 2022. On 6 December 2022, The Hague Court of Appeal ruled that the acts depicted on the videos presented in support of the case did not reach the threshold of the war crime of assault on personal dignity, and acquitted al-Y. of all core international crimes charges. It upheld the finding of guilt for membership in a terrorist organization. Al-Y.’s sentence was thus lowered to five years and four months in prison.
The prosecution has appealed the decision on the law before the Supreme Court.
On 22 April 2025, the Supreme Court upheld the acquittal of war crime outrage upon personal dignity of deceased soldiers. The second ground of appeal was granted and the case referred back to the court of second instance since the Supreme Court found that the court of second instance failed to give sufficient reasoning as to why and how it found that Ahmad al-Y. was not a member of Ahrar al-Sham around November 2015.