Dutch jihadi suspect Laura Hansen should be jailed for 35 months, 24 suspended, the public prosecution department said at her trial in Rotterdam on Thursday.

Hansen, who spent a year in custody following her arrest, is charged with membership of a terrorist organisation and preparing to commit terrorist attacks together with her husband Ibrahim. If convicted, she will not have to spend any more time behind bars.

The public prosecutor said in opening statements that Hansen, a Muslim convert at the time, had made the ‘well-considered and deliberate’ decision to travel to IS-held territory and that several witnesses have stated that she took the primary role in making the travel arrangements.

Hansen, 21, who has two young children, claims she was forced to make the trip by her violent husband and that she was unaware at the time what has happening in Iraq and Syria.

Attack

Giving evidence from inside a closed-off witness box to keep her appearance secret, she told the court on Thursday that her husband wanted to carry out an attack in the Netherlands or other European country, broadcaster NOS reported.

Hansen was released from high security prison ahead of her trial in July after the  public prosecution department said it no longer considers that she was sent back to the Netherlands to carry out a terrorist attack.

Hansen, from Zoetermeer, fled the region via Kurdish territory with the help of her father last year. She has since renounced Islam.

The trial concludes on Friday.