Case: Yousra L. -

Yousra L., a Dutch national, was a member of ISIS between 2014 and 2019. However, she did not travel to Syria or Iraq. While being in the Netherlands, she managed Telegram accounts, groups, and group-chats, spreading ISIS propaganda, inciting terrorist acts, and distributing video and photo material of acts of violence committed by ISIS. Namely, Yousra L. shared a video depicting prisoners of war being burned alive in Iraq by ISIS and another video that contained images of the shooting of a person. She added her own degrading comments while distributing these online. Yousra L. was arrested on 10 October 2019. Two years later, the Court of First Instance found her guilty of complicity in war crimes of outrage upon personal dignity, membership in a terrorist organisation, incitement to terrorism, participating in terrorism training, and sanctions violations, sentencing her to 6 years imprisonment with compulsory psychiatric treatment. In December 2024, the Court of Appeal acquitted Yousra L. of complicity in war crimes of outrage upon personal dignity, since according to the court, it could not be found beyond reasonable doubt that her disrespectful comments constituted an assault on personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, as specified in law. Hence, the court also refrained from assessing the nexus between her actions and an ongoing non-international armed conflict. On appeal, her sentence was reduced to four years imprisonment with compulsory psychiatric treatment.