The Dutch government has been supporting an armed group in Syria which has been branded a terrorist organisation by the public prosecution department, current affairs show Nieuwsuur reported on Monday night. Parliamentarians demanded answers after the report aired by the national public broadcaster said the Netherlands gave "non-lethal assistance" (NLA) to 22 armed opposition groups battling President Bashar al-Assad's forces. The "non-lethal" goods supplied by the Dutch government included satellite phones, uniforms, assorted equipment and even the 'iconic' Toyota Hilux pick-up trucks, widely used by various militant groups in Syria.At least one of the groups supplied by the Netherlands,the journalists have revealed. According to the public prosecutor Jabbat al-Shamiya is ‘salafist and jihadistic’, ‘strives for the setting up of the caliphate’ and can be qualified as nothing else but a ‘criminal organisation of terrorist intent’. Monday's revelations come days after Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok's announcement that the government was cutting all support to "moderate" opposition groups in Syria which has been ravaged by seven years of civil war.
Nieuwsuur reports the Dutch government has provided funding over the past two years to Syrian rebel group Jabhat al-Shamiya, despite Dutch prosecutors describing the group as a "salafist and jihadistic" terror group and preparing to bring a man to trial next week accused of being a member.