Dutch jihadi bride who fled Syria is released from prison pending trial

A 21-year-old Dutch Muslim convert who escaped from Iraq with her two children has been released from high security prison ahead of her October trial on terrorism charges by judges in Rotterdam.

The public prosecution department said last week that Laura Hansen should no longer be held in a high security jail and that it no longer considers that she was sent back to the Netherlands to carry out a terrorist attack.

Hansen has been ordered to wear an electronic tag, must report regularly to the probation services and has been banned from contacting the media or her husband, who remains in IS territory.

Hansen, from Zoetermeer, has been held in the high security jail in Vught since last August, having fled via Kurdish territory with her two young children with the help of her father. She claims she was tricked into going to Syria by her husband after the family left for what she believed was a holiday in Turkey and has since renounced Islam.

Her trial will take place on October 12 and 13.