The murder of Ryan Al Najjar, an 18-year-old Syrian woman living in the Netherlands, regained public attention following a post by libertarian influencer Argentine Daniel Parisini, known as El Gordo Dan, who shared a forceful message on X: "Ryan Al Najjar, an 18-year-old Syrian Muslim woman, was tied up with duct tape and drowned in a ditch in the Netherlands by her father and brothers for being too 'westernized.' When they were arrested, they defended themselves by claiming that honor crimes are 'part of their culture.'"
The Netherlands Public Prosecution Service (OM) confirmed that Ryan was murdered in Lelystad in a planned honor killing. The young woman died by drowning, completely immobilized with 18 meters (59 feet) of duct tape whose DNA matched her father, Khaled Al N., 52 years old. Prosecutors detailed that traces of his genetic material were found under the victim's three fingernails, evidence that the young woman fought fiercely before dying.
The body was found on May 28, 2024, by a Staatsbosbeheer employee in the water at Knardijk, in Lelystad. The victim had her hands tied behind her back, her mouth covered with duct tape, and her ankles bound. Investigators established that her shoes were removed before she was immobilized, and that her two phones were thrown into the water. The phone cases, however, were hidden inside her own shoes, which were also found at the scene. One of the cases contained the fingerprint of her brother Mohamed Al N. (23).
During the third preliminary hearing of the case, the Public Prosecutor's Office presented direct evidence against brothers Muhanad (25) and Mohamed, both accused of murder along with their father, who is currently on the run in Syria. The OM indicated that it was Khaled himself who recorded the tying up of the young woman; his DNA appears on multiple segments of the duct tape.
