Migrant father who tied up his daughter, 18, and drowned her in a swamp because her 'Western behaviour' shamed the family is found guilty of honour killing in Holland
A fugitive father who tied up and drowned his daughter in an honour killing that shocked the Netherlands has been sentenced to 30 years in jail.
Khaled al Najjar, 53, skipped the country hours after the body of his daughter Ryan, 18, was found bound and gagged in a swamp at an isolated nature reserve and is now hiding in Syria.
His two sons Mohamed, 23, and Muhanad, 25, were also found guilty and given 20 years each but only the eldest was in court for the verdict.
The judge read out her decision as Muhanad, dressed in a beige hoodie, looked on with his hands folded in front of him and as the hearing ended he said: 'I will clear my name.'
Officials said the man's youngest brother had decided to stay in jail and not attend the hearing - which the judge took a dim view to.
After the hearing Muhanad's lawyer Johan Mühren, who is the nephew of former Manchester United and Ipswich Town player Arnold, said: 'I will have to speak with my client but we will appeal. There was no direct evidence linking him to the crime.'
In the written summary the court concluded Khaled tied up his daughter, strangled her, and left her in the water.
It added that one of his sons, who it did not name, was also at the location where his sister was tied up and ended up in the water.
Ryan's body was found in a swamp six days after she disappeared from her family home in the Netherlands. She was gagged and her hands were tied behind her back
A court sketch of suspects Mohammed, right, and Muhanad Al Najjar, accused of helping their father kill their sister. The men insisted their father acted alone
The court said it was not able to establish the role of the other son but said this was 'irrelevant to the question of guilt'.
The ruling added: 'It is clear that he, too, played a significant role in his sister's death. He and his brother picked her up from Rotterdam and drove them to the Oostvaardersplassen, knowing what awaited her.'
New details revealed by prosecutors last month had claimed Ryan violated her family's strict expectations by adopting a Western lifestyle, mixing with boys, refusing to wear a headscarf and using social media.
Prosecutors told the court the killing appeared to have been triggered by a live TikTok video showing Ryan without a headscarf and wearing makeup.
They said chat messages suggested the video embarrassed Ryan's family as it did not fit within their traditional views.
Investigators alleged the murder followed a long pattern of intimidation and control inside the household, with Ryan's behaviour viewed by her relatives as a humiliating betrayal that ultimately led to the fatal attack.
The brothers, whose trial began November 27, insisted they were not involved and said their father carried out the murder alone.
Ryan disappeared on May 22, 2024. A passerby discovered her body on May 28 in Lelystad, about 25 miles north-east of Amsterdam.
The teenager's body was discovered by a passerby in a swamp after prosecutors said her father orchestrated her murder
Investigators later found DNA belonging to her father under her fingernails, indicating that she had put up a fight.
Khaled allegedly sent two emails to Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf claiming responsibility and saying his sons were innocent. Prosecutors, however, rejected that claim.
They argued that the father told his sons to collect Ryan, drive her to an isolated location, and meet him there.
But Mühren claimed Muhanad had picked up his sister in Rotterdam 'to take her home. He told her to apologize to her father. Then everything would be okay.'
Shortly after midnight, Ryan was killed.
In court, the prosecutor described the fear Ryan must have felt - alone in the dark and far from help.
'What must she have feared,' the prosecutor said.
'In the middle of the night, in complete darkness, in a completely isolated place.'
