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 murdered her after she adopted a “Western” lifestyle that included refusing to wear a headscarf, associating with males and using social media.
Mohamed Al Najjar, 23, and his brother Muhanad, 25, are charged with murdering the teen, while her father, Khaled, 53, is accused of orchestrating and participating in the killing before escaping to Syria.
Ryan was picked up from a house in Rotterdam by her brothers on the night before her murder and driven to a remote location, where they met up with their father, according to prosecutors.
Khaled’s DNA reportedly was found under his daughter’s fingernails, implying he was present for the murder, 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.
“Khaled has completely destroyed his family,” the PPS said.
The father allegedly sent emails to Dutch media confessing to murdering his daughter while claiming his sons weren’t involved, the NL Times said.
But intercepted chat messages point to the brothers’ active involvement in the killing, according to prosecutors.
“Khaled was the driving force, but without his sons, Ryan would not have been there at all,” prosecutors said of the crime scene.
The two brothers each face 20 years in prison, while the father could land 25 years when he is tried in absentia, prosecutors said.
Defense lawyers are scheduled to speak in court Monday. A verdict is expected Jan. 5, 2026.