Hofstad Network

The Hofstad Network was an Islamist terror group composed mostly of Dutch citizens.[1] 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. [2] In this particular instance, it was shown that 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 Dutch 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

The earliest reference to the Hofstad group occurred in 2002, when they 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 posing as a religious. During these living room meetings, radicalization took place. 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 October 14 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 extremist in Morocco and Syria.

In 2003 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.[1] During this time, the man embraced the Muslim culture and became known as the "Taliban" by many in his neighborhood.[3] He is also rumored to have traveled to Denmark to meet with a Syrian preacher who was commonly in touch with the Hofstad group.

In 2004, the group was under heavy surveillance by the AIVD, which dampened the group's activities.[4] However, it did not stop Mohammed Bouyeri, the killer of Van Gogh, from continuing to become more radicalized. He moved from being radicalized with ideas to adopting extremist and violent ideas.

On May 18 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 August 29 2004, Van Gogh and Ayaan Hirsi Ali created a short film, Submission, that contained scenes of Quranic verses being painted onto semi-naked women.[5] This was the catalyst for the group's radicalization and Mohammed Bouyeri's justification to kill Van Gogh for the blasphemy of Islam.

Claimed attacks

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 November 2 of that year, the Dutch filmmaker was killed on his way to work in Amsterdam. The killer cycled alongside Van Gogh before shooting him several times and ending the brutal attack with an attempt to decapitate the man.[6] Before fleeing the scene, he left a note pinned to the man's chest that had a death threat for Hirsi Ali. [7]

After the attack, Mohammed Bouyeri went to a park near by where he had a shoot out with police before being taken into custody.

Witnesses said that Mohammed 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 after 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.[8]

Shortly after the murder of van Gogh by Mohammed 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.[9]

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 Nouredine 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.[10] 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 former Dutch Parliamentarian Hirsi Ali.

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

Second trial

On December 17, 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:[11][12][13] 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
• Mohammed 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.[14] 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

1. Schuurman, Bart; Eijkman, Quirine; Bakker, Edwin (8 June 2014). "A History of the Hofstadgroup". Perspectives on Terrorism. 8 (4). ISSN 2334-3745.
2. Vidino, Lorenzo (4 June 2007). "The Hofstad Group: The New Face of Terrorist Networks in Europe". Studies in Conflict & Terrorism. 30 (7): 579–592. doi:10.1080/10576100701385933. ISSN 1057-610X.
3. Schuurman, Bart; Eijkman, Quirine; Bakker, Edwin (8 June 2014). "A History of the Hofstadgroup". Perspectives on Terrorism. 8 (4). ISSN 2334-3745.
4. Schuurman, Bart; Eijkman, Quirine; Bakker, Edwin (8 June 2014). "A History of the Hofstadgroup". Perspectives on Terrorism. 8 (4). ISSN 2334-3745.
5. Conquest, Robert (1985), "January 1938–August 1938: Terror Renewed", Inside Stalin's Secret Police, Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 56–75, doi:10.1007/978-1-349-07986-5_5, ISBN 9781349079889
6. Conquest, Robert (1985), "January 1938–August 1938: Terror Renewed", Inside Stalin's Secret Police, Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 56–75, doi:10.1007/978-1-349-07986-5_5, ISBN 9781349079889
7. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/may/08/ayaan-hirsi-ali-interview
8. Schuurman, Bart; Eijkman, Quirine; Bakker, Edwin (2014). "A History of the Hofstadgroup". Perspectives on Terrorism. 8 (4): 65–81. ISSN 2334-3745. JSTOR 26297197.
9. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 15 January 2010. Retrieved 6 February 2010.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
10. "Terrorism Trials as Theatre | ICCT". icct.nl. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
11. "Rechtspraak.nl - Zoeken in uitspraken". rechtspraak.nl.
12. "Extended prison sentence for four terror plotters". nrc.nl. Archived from the original on 5 December 2008. Retrieved 2 February 2010.
13. "In Dutch terror cases, many are arrested but only few convicted". nrc.nl. Archived from the original on 15 September 2012.
14. "'Hofstadgroep' brengt bloemen bij Vara". Algemeen Dagblad (in Dutch). 19 June 2006. Archived from the original on 24 August 2007.

External links

• "NOS Hofstadgroep Leden FAQ". Background information on members (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 7 December 2005. Retrieved 7 December 2005.
• 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