Returned Syria jihadi gets 28 years for murder

A young man from Vilvoorde who went to Syria to fight has been sentenced by a court in Antwerp to 28 years in prison for murder. Hakim Elouassaki, 24, was convicted of the shooting death of a hostage.

Elouassaki was a member of Sharia4Belgium, which actively recruits young people in Belgium to go to Syria. On arriving there, he and others from Belgium joined up with the organisation Majlis Shura Al Mujahideen, which took hostages for ransom.

According to telephone calls intercepted by authorities, Elouassaki told friends back home that he had extorted €30,000 from the families of hostages. He said in another call that he had executed a hostage whose family couldn’t pay with a gunshot to the head. Elouassaki was later wounded and returned to Belgium, where he was arrested.

Because he did not receive the maximum sentence of 30 years, Elouassaki should qualify for parole when he has served one-third of his sentence. As he has already spent four years on remand awaiting trial, he could be free five years from now.

The court added, however, that he could be legally detained for up to 10 more years if he is considered unsafe to release back into society.

Photo: Ingimage