Syrian refugee Khaled al-Najjar has reportedly confessed to the murder of his daughter, Ryan al-Najjar.
Ryan was found dead May 28 along the Knardijk in Lelystad, according to NL Times. Khaled reportedly fled to Turkey after the murder, where he then confessed to family members where Ryan’s body was located. Khaled’s initial confession came via an admission note he sent to Dutch outlet, De Telegraaf. He did not give any other reason for the apparent murder other than “… he was ‘very angry with her,'” the confession reads, according to the outlet.
People who know of al-Najjar’s family have since told to De Telegraaf that al-Najjar’s murder was an “honor killing.”
A source told De Telegraaf that Khaled had beaten al-Najjar because of her having a Dutch boyfriend as well as al-Najjar not wanting to wear her headscarf anymore.
Syrian refugee ‘murders his “Westernised” daughter, 18, in honour killing and dumps her in a canal after she started dating local Dutch boy and wanted to stop wearing a headscarf’ https://t.co/vkENhuv3Ye pic.twitter.com/5XRoRt0XEh
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) June 6, 2024
Police took two men into custody in connection to Ryan’s death after “a large-scale investigation,” according to NL Times. They speculate the reason behind the murder was due to Khalid not being able to accept Ryan’s Westernized lifestyle.
Khaled reportedly murdered al-Najjar, dumped her body in Lelystad, fled to Germany and then ended up in Turkey where he confessed, Sources told the NL Times. (RELATED: Death Toll Rises After Tram Shooting In The Netherlands)
Khaled was a worker in a shoe factory, and his wife Sumaia watched their nine children when they lived in Syria. They moved to the Netherlands to seek asylum from the Syrian civil war and ended up in Joure in 2017, NL Times reported.
Neighbors of al-Najjar’s family explained to De Telegraaf that al-Najjar feared for her life leading up to her murder. Al-Najjar also had received shelter from two other neighbors, who said that they had seen rope wounds around her wrist, according to De Telegraaf.
