As a teenager , Jejoen Bontinck danced in music videos and was a regular kid hanging out with friends in Antwerp , Belgium . But within a year , he went from a hip-hop-loving teenager to a young Muslim convert , preaching on the streets of Antwerp . His father , Dimitri Bontinck , claims that in 2010 , when Jejoen was 15 , he became infatuated with a Moroccan girl , which eventually led to him converting to Islam . His parents started noticing a radical change in their son about eight to nine months after the conversion . `` He started to become very religious . He stopped wearing his normal clothes . So we really see the progress of radicalization -- this is the right word -- we really see the signs , '' Dimitri explained . Dimitri says he called the authorities after his son joined a radical Muslim organization in Belgium , but they took no action . `` [ They told me ] there is no law forbidding a child to be a member of this organization , '' Dimitri says . `` It 's freedom of speech . Its freedom of religion . Its freedom of organization . '' When Jejoen , still a teenager , asked his parents if he could move to Cairo to study Islam last year , they said yes . But Dimitri knew something was wrong when Jejoen did n't call his sister on her birthday -- and he began to believe that his son was n't in Egypt at all . Dimitri searched for clues online to where his son really was , and he was shocked by what he found -- videos and pictures of his son 's hometown friends in Syria . `` It was Syria this , Syria that . One day I find a video ... of friends of his from Antwerp . So when I saw that , I knew right away -- my son is there , '' he says . So Dimitri , a former Belgian soldier who says he used to work with the U.N. , decided to go after Jejoen himself . He took out an ad in a local newspaper asking for volunteers to take him to Syria . In April of last year , a Dutch war reporter agreed to accompany Dimitri to Syria , but their trip turned up few leads on where Jejoen might be . So six months later , Dimitri returned to the war-torn country on his own . Dimitri says it did n't take long before he encountered some of the militants who were fighting to bring down the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad . Dimitri says he was warned that he would be killed by the Islamists , but instead they took him in . Along the way , Dmitri shot videos of his time in Syria . In one he appears to sympathize with the militants , even parading around with their weapons . `` They took me in and they all respect me , '' he says . `` I was eating with leaders ( of these groups ) and they pray for me . '' `` I have been in Syria and I meet with so many groups like Jabhat al-Nusra ... and I am not Muslim . And when you see what these people have done for me ! They arranged for my sleeping and food . '' Jabhat al-Nusra , a hard-line al Qaeda affiliate , is one of the most notorious groups operating in Syria today . Dimitri says militants from the group nearly beat him to death . `` They beat me , they almost killed me , '' he says . `` They took all my clothes off . They put a cap on me , they put cuffs on me . And I was almost dead , because always they suspect [ I was ] CIA , '' he says . But in the end , Dimitri says , they let him go -- and led him to his son , who he says was living with al-Nusra militants at the time . Dimitri gets emotional when describing what it was like to come face to face with his son for the first time inside Syria . `` I never cried before when I was searching for him , when I did n't know anything , '' he says . `` But the first physical contact -- I held him like a small baby . I was really in harmony with him . And he was too . Because he was like a children who has lost his way . '' But the saga did n't end when Dimitri and his son boarded the plane home . Police detained Jejoen , now 19 , when they landed in Belgium , and charged him with participating in a terrorist organization . Jejoen says he was only there to deliver medical supplies to the group . Jejoen is now at home with his dad , but he is being closely monitored by Belgian authorities as he awaits his trial , which is expected to begin at the end of June . He is barred from speaking to the press . Dimitri insists his son is innocent and says that the Belgian authorities have n't done enough to keep their own citizens safe from extremist groups . Many questions remain unanswered . What was Jejoen 's role inside Syria ? Was he truly on a humanitarian mission ? There are more questions than answers as Jejoen 's day in court approaches -- but for both father and son , the journey has transformed their lives forever .
Jejeon Bontinck left Belgium to join militant group Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria last year . Bontinck 's dad Dimitri decided to try to track his son down in Syria . The Belgian authorities said they had been unable to find the boy and that he was believed to have joined a jihadist group. Jejeon , now 19 , is back in Belgium and facing terrorism charges .