Nine Dutch people were added to the national terrorism list by foreign minister Bert Koenders on Tuesday, reports NOS.

The list now comprises 61 people and three organisations, which have had their assets frozen and are being hunted in relation to suspected activities in Syria and Iraq.

‘For people who leave, it will be ever more difficult to commit or finance acts of terror,’ Koenders told NOS. ‘We also want to prevent these people from returning to the Netherlands to commit violence.’

Friends and relatives of those on the list also face fines or imprisonment for giving them money.

Dusseldorf

But some suspects escape official attention. ANP reports that earlier this year a Dutch terror suspect was able to fly from Düsseldorf to Turkey, because a letter to the Dutch prosecutor arrived too late to issue an arrest warrant.

The man was eventually arrested and is now in custody in the Netherlands but justice minister Ard Van der Steur called his escape ‘unacceptable’.

D66 liberal democratic leader Alexander Pechtold said one of the Brussels bombers had slipped through the Netherlands, similarly escaping official attention.