A 21-year-old Dutch mother who claims to have escaped from IS-held territory in Syria told a court in Rotterdam on Thursday she left because she thought what was happening there is ‘terrible’.

Laura Hansen, from Zoetermeer, told the court that she never intended to join up with IS and had never been a part of the organisation, local broadcaster Omroep West said.

Hansen is accused of fighting for Islamic State in the war-torn region. She has been in detention since she landed at Schiphol airport in August, having fled via Kurdish territory. She claimed she was tricked into going to Syria by her husband after the family left for what she believed was a holiday in Turkey.

The public prosecution department says it is examining all the options, including the possibility she was sent back to the Netherlands to carry out a terrorist attack.

Hansen, who was in tears as she spoke, also said she wanted to be placed in a location where she could have contact with her two children. She is being held in a high security prison with other terror suspects.

The court, however, rejected her plea to be released from custody, arguing that the interests of the criminal case are more important than her own private interests.

Next week she will be sent to the Pieter Baan Centrum for psychiatric tests.

Hansen made her statement out of view of court reporters. At the first hearing, judges banned court artists from sketching her, but some did so anyway, broadcaster NOS said.