Dutch court sends French terror suspect home to face charges

Dutch judges have agreed to send a wanted Frenchman back to his home country where he faces accusations of involvement in a foiled terror attack.

Police raided an apartment in Rotterdam in late March at France’s request where they arrested Anis Bahri, and found about 45 kilograms (almost 100 pounds) of ammunition.

Bahri is suspected of planning to carry out an attack in France for the Islamic State group along with Reda Kriket, another suspect detained near Paris a few days before him.

“The court doesn’t see any reason to refuse handing you back (to French authorities) and so approves the request,” judge Hans Kijlstra tells the public court hearing in Amsterdam.

Bahri, 32, had sought to fight his return to France, saying he feared he would be sentenced to life imprisonment and mistreated in a French jail.

But the court rejected his pleas, and stressed that no proceedings were being brought against him in the Netherlands.

“Based on the information available to us about detention conditions in France, we are unable to conclude that there’s a real danger of such treatment,” judge Kijlstra says in his verdict.

— AFP