Dutch prosecutors arrest Syrian asylum seeker who 'worked for ISIS'

The 37-year-old is suspected of holding a 'managerial position' in the extremist group's security service

The aftermath of fighting at the Yarmouk camp in 2018. The suspect was said to be based there. AFP

Authorities in the Netherlands have arrested a man suspected of holding a “managerial position” in the security service of ISIS during Syria’s grinding civil war.

The 37-year-old Syrian, whose name has not been released, is accused of having acted as a security chief for ISIS and Jabhat Al Nusra extremist groups.

He was arrested in the small village of Arkel, about 50km east of the port city of Rotterdam on Tuesday.

“It is suspected that from his position at ISIS he also contributed to the war crimes that the organisation committed in Syria,” the National Public Prosecutor’s Office said.

The man is suspected of holding “a managerial position in the security service of IS” from 2015-2018, prosecutors added.

For two years before that, he allegedly carried out the same work for Jabhat Al Nusra.

Prosecutors say he held both functions “in and around the Yarmouk refugee camp” south of the Syrian capital, Damascus.

The suspect applied for asylum in the Netherlands in 2019 and later settled in Arkel, prosecutors said. He was scheduled to appear before an examining magistrate in The Hague on February 20.

It was not the first time Dutch authorities have arrested a suspect from the Syrian conflict.

Last year, a Dutch court convicted two Syrian brothers of holding senior roles in Jabhat Al Nusra between 2011 and 2014.