16-Year-Old Arrested in Eindhoven for Suspected Contact with IS Supporters

A 16-year-old boy was arrested in Eindhoven because he would have had contact with IS supporters, it reports Eindhovens Dagblad.

According to the newspaper, which has had the report confirmed by the Public Prosecution Service, the boy was arrested at home at the beginning of May and is still detained. On Tuesday, a 19-year-old man from Deventer was also arrested on suspicion of planning an attack.

The young Eindhoven resident M. is said to have spoken on Telegram with the man from Deventer and a suspect from Belgium about planning attacks in Belgium. According to a spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service, these were “serious conversations”, but M. had not yet had any physical contact or purchased items. “We suspect him of preparing a terrorist crime,” the spokesman told the newspaper.

The same day that the boy from Eindhoven was arrested by the Dutch police, a major action took place in Belgium in which seven suspects were arrested in various parts of Flanders. According to the Belgian judiciary, the group, whose members mostly have a Chechen background, had radicalized in a short time. M. would have had contact with one of those Belgians.

According to the OM, the investigation into the teenager from Eindhoven is still ongoing and the 19-year-old from Deventer will be brought before Friday. On May 17, the examining magistrate decided that M. must remain in his cell for at least thirty days.

The Eindhovens Dagblad has asked the teenager’s family and his lawyer for a response, but they did not want to comment on the arrest and accusations.