Facts
In 2014, Xaviera S., a Dutch national, travelled to Syria to join ISIS, reuniting with her husband, who was already living in ISIS-controlled territory. Over the course of nearly four years, she lived in various locations within the caliphate.
Procedure
Xaviera S. was arrested in January 2018 in Turkey, where she spent about one-and-a-half years in prison. After her release, she was extradited to the Netherlands, where she was immediately arrested on suspicion of being a member of a terrorist organization. She was placed in pre-trial detention from November 2019 until May 2020. Initially tried in the District Court of Rotterdam, her case was transferred to the District Court in The Hague after charges of war crimes, specifically pillaging, were added to her indictment.
On 26 April 2024, The Hague District Court convicted Xaviera S. of membership in a terrorist organization and of making online threats against two Dutch journalists. She was sentenced to 860 days in prison. Taking into consideration the period she had already spent in prison in Turkey, 720 days of her sentence were suspended. Additionally, she was ordered to perform 480 hours of community service for threatening journalists. The court dismissed the journalists’ compensation claims. Following her acquittal for the war crime charge of pillaging and the dismissal of the compensation claims, the public prosecution service appealed the verdict.
On 9 July 2026, The Hague Court of Appeal convicted Xaviera S. of looting as a war crime, participation in an organization with terrorist intent, two threats with terrorist intent, and the preparation of terrorist crimes. Xaviera S. was sentenced to a prison term of 860 days, of which 720 days were suspended, and a community service order of 400 hours. The District Court had previously acquitted her of looting, but the Court of Appeal ruled that the manner in which she, together with her husband, acquired homes in the Syrian conflict zone fits into a pre-existing pattern in which houses of fleeing or displaces residents were seized by ISIS or Jabhat al-Nusra for fighters and their families. The Court of Appeal emphasized that the armed conflict played a substantial role in the decision to appropriate the homes, given that this took place following the conquest of territories by Jabhat al-Nusra or ISIS.