A Muslim father and his two sons tied up his teen daughter and drowned her in a swamp because they believed her “Western behavior” was shaming their family, according to Dutch prosecutors.
The body of Ryan Al Najjar, 18, was found gagged, bound with tape and submerged in a marsh May 28, 2024, six days after she vanished from the family’s home in Joure in the north of the Netherlands, the NL Times reported.
Her male relatives allegedly murd3red her after she adopted a “Western” lifestyle that included her refusing to wear a headscarf, associating with males and using social media.
Mohamed Al Najjar, 23, and his brother Muhanad, 25, have now been charged with murd3ring the teen, while her father, Khaled, 53, is accused of orchestrating and participating in the k!lling before escaping to Syria.
Ryan was picked up from a house in Rotterdam by her brothers on the night before her murd3r and driven to a remote location, where they met up with their father, according to prosecutors.
Khaled’s DNA was reportedly found under his daughter’s fingernails, implying he was present for the murd3r, which is believed to have taken place just after midnight May 22, 2024.
“What must she have feared. In the middle of the night, in complete darkness, in a completely isolated place,” the prosecutor said, according to the outlet.
The father is married to a Syrian woman, making his extradition to the Netherlands more difficult, according to Dutch authorities.
“[Khaled] fled to Syria immediately after the murder and left his sons to take the blame. Cowardly,” the Public Prosecution Service wrote in a statement Friday, Nov. 28.
Muslim father, son conspire to drown daughter for adopting Western lifestyle
