Today an interview with lawyer Michiel Pestman was published in the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant in which he discusses the topic of Dutch jihadists traveling to Syria from a criminal law perspective.
'The jihad is absolutely not criminal. An armed conflict is going on in Syria, and when in Syria, the jihadists join a party to that conflict. That is not a crime. In October 2011 the judge held that the Tamil Tigers fighting in Sri Lanka are not terrorists, because they were party to an armed conflict. Armed conflicts and terrorism are mutually exclusive. In principle therefore, jihadists traveling to Syria are also not terrorists.'
Read the whole interview here (in Dutch).