Hofstadgroep

The Hofstad Network was an Islamist terror group composed mostly of Dutch citizens. The terror group was composed mainly of young men between the ages of 18 and 32. The name "Hofstad" was originally the codename the Dutch secret service AIVD used for the network and leaked to the media. The name likely refers to the nickname of the city of The Hague, where some of the suspected terrorists lived. The network was active throughout the 2000s.

The group was made up of Muslim immigrants living in the Netherlands, and second and third generation immigrants to the Netherlands, and Dutch converts. The majority of these immigrants came from Morocco.

The network was said to have links to networks in Spain and Belgium. Among their contacts was Abdeladim Akoudad, also known as Naoufel, one of the suspects of the 2003 Casablanca bombings. The group was influenced by the ideology of Takfir wal-Hijra, a militant offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Redouan al-Issar, also known as "The Syrian", was the suspected spiritual leader of the group. Most media attention was attracted by Mohammed Bouyeri, sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering film director Theo van Gogh in 2004 and by Samir Azzouz, suspected of planning terrorist attacks on the Dutch parliament and several strategic targets such as the national airport and a nuclear reactor. The group was also suspected of planning to kill several members of government and parliament.

History

In 2002, the Hofstad group were discovered by the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD). The intelligence gathered in the first years after the group was discovered was limited, revealing that the group had only been meeting together. These were informal living-room meetings held by a Syrian asylum-seeker. By the end of 2002, the AIVD began to suspect that the organization was developing extremist views and discussing mass casualty events.

On 14 October 2003, Samir Azzouz, Ismail Akhnikh, Jason Walters and Redouan al-Issar were put under arrest for planning a (according to the AIVD) "terrorist attack in the Netherlands", but were released soon after. Azzouz was eventually tried in this case, but acquitted for lack of evidence in 2005: he did possess what he thought to be a home-made bomb, but having used the wrong type of fertilizer, the device would never have exploded.

At the beginning of 2003, a Hofstad member and his friend tried to join an Islamic rebel group in Chechnya, but were discovered by authorities and arrested. During the summer, two Hofstad group members traveled to Pakistan where they received paramilitary training. In September, the two men returned and it was discovered by authorities that these same men could be traced to having talked to a man having ties to the Casablanca bombings earlier that year. On 14 October of that year, the Spanish authorities arrested a Moroccan man who was suspected to be involved in suspicious activity. Police in the Netherlands arrested five Hofstad associates, including three who traveled abroad and were in contact with extremists in Morocco and Syria.

In 2003, Mohammed Bouyeri, the man who murdered Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, was radicalized. He withdrew from mainstream Dutch society by quitting his job and distancing himself from all friends and family who were non-religious. During this time, he became known as the "Taliban" by many in his neighborhood.

In 2004, the group was under heavy surveillance by the AIVD, which dampened the group's activities.

On 18 May 2004, authorities received a tip that a grocery store worker had been involved in preparing for a terror attack. A couple weeks later, the Dutch secret service had arrested this man after capturing him on security cameras taking measurements of the Dutch secret service headquarters. Upon his arrest, police found maps as well as weapons that could be used to carry out the terror attacks.

On 29 August 2004, Van Gogh and Ayaan Hirsi Ali created a short film, Submission, that contained scenes of Quranic verses being painted onto semi-naked women. This was the catalyst for the group's radicalization and Bouyeri's justification to kill Van Gogh for the blasphemy of Islam.

Claimed attacks

Theo van Gogh's murder was the first terrorist attack claimed by the Hofstad group.

In September 2004, authorities received a tip from an email that warned of two Hofstad group members preparing a terror attack. The anonymous source also admitted to being recruited by these men to carry out the planned terrorist attacks with particular targets.

On 2 November of that year, Mohamed Bouyeri killed Van Gogh when he was on his way to work in Amsterdam. The killer cycled alongside the filmmaker before shooting him several times and attempting to decapitate him. Before fleeing the scene, he left a note pinned to Van Gogh's chest that had a death threat for Hirsi Ali.

After the attack, Bouyeri went to a park nearby, where he had a shootout with police before being taken into custody.

Witnesses said that Bouyeri had been stalking his route for some time before the attack had happened.

After the attack, the police then spent the greater 10 days arresting the group members. One group member who acted as the religious teacher for the group fled the country the day of Van Gogh's murder and entered Syria illegally.

Shortly after the murder of Van Gogh by Bouyeri in November 2004, the organization gained attention from national media when an attempt to arrest suspected members Jason Walters and Ismail Akhnikh led to a 14-hour siege of a house in The Hague. During these events, the name ''Hofstad Network'' became public and the media has continued to use this moniker to refer to the organization. In the months after the siege, a number of other suspected members of the organization were arrested. On 5 December 2005, the Hofstad court case against 14 suspected members started.

First trial

On 10 March 2006, the court convicted nine of the 14 suspects of being a member of a criminal terrorist organisation. The other five suspected members were acquitted of this charge.

Samir Azzouz, Jermaine Walters—suspected but not incarcerated—and another five members were arrested on suspicion of preparing an attack against (yet unnamed) national politicians and the building of the General Intelligence and Security Agency AIVD on 14 October 2005. In this separate case, Noureddine El Fahtni is also a suspect.

On 1 December 2005, Samir Azzouz was sentenced to nine years in prison.

The first trial was conducted under a Dutch judge of the District Court in Rotterdam in March. During the trial, the judge admitted that he felt as if it was obvious that arrest leading to the hearing had created a spectacle and that the group members ideologies were being greatly scrutinized. The lawyers who defended that group labeled the trial as a "witch trial". It was clear that the ideological threat the Hofstad group had posed stirred the emotions of the public. The judge ruled that in the case of the Hofstad group there was a clear distinction between peaceful and harmful extremism. The judge ruled that four of the members to be acquitted because they showed no attempt for violence but only held extremist ideas. The judge also ruled that the group was not a terror organization.
* Jason Walters – 15 years' incarceration, released May 2013
* Ismail Akhnikh – 13 years' incarceration
* Nouredine el Fahtni – 5 years' incarceration
* Yousef Ettoumi – 1 year
* Zine Labidine Aourghe – 18 months
* Mohammed Fahmi Boughabe – 18 months
* Mohamed el Morabit – 2 years
* Ahmed Hamdi – 2 years

Mohammed Bouyeri was already serving a life sentence at the time and could not be further punished.
Jermaine Walters was exonerated from making a threat against Hirsi Ali, then a Dutch Parliamentarian.

Jermaine Walters, Nadir Adarraf, Rachid Belkacem, Mohamed El Bousklaoui and Zakaria Taybi were freed.

Second trial

On 17 December 2010, the appeals court of The Hague overthrew the verdict, and acquitted many of the suspects, stating that they found no evidence for the existence of the Hofstad Network: Upon the ruling, the court determined that the Hofstad group was a terror criminal organization who had the intent of committing crimes out of violence and hatred. Documents and public letters that had been written by group members were provided as evidence throughout the trial.

* Jason Walters – 15 years' incarceration, released May 2013
* Ismail Akhnikh – 15 months' incarceration
* Nouredine el Fahtni – acquitted
* Yousef Ettoumi – acquitted
* Zine Labidine Aourghe – 18 months
* Mohamed Fahmi Boughabe – acquitted
* Mohamed El Morabit – acquitted
* Ahmed Hamdi – acquitted

VARA

On 18 May 2006, a group of four young men delivered flowers to the Dutch public broadcaster VARA. The flowers included a note, "greetings, the Hofstadgroup," which was a 'thank you' for the VARA ''Zembla'' documentary broadcast the week prior, on the topic of Ayaan Hirsi Ali's asylum background. Jermaine Walters was said to be one of the men.

See also

* Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group
*List of designated terrorist groups

References

External links

*

Netwerk: Handgrenade allegedly supplied by Dutch Security Service AIVD

Nova: AIVD withheld information from Swat Team

KRO Reporter: Who threw the handgrenade ?

KRO Reporter: Moles and Martyrs

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Islamist groups
Organisations designated as terrorist by the European Union
Jihadist groups
Islamic terrorism in the Netherlands