A Dutch court on Wednesday has freed a Dutch citizen sentenced to 25 years imprisonment by the US for conspiring to kill Americans in Iraq, to the chagrin of Washington.

The court in Rotterdam commuted the sentence of Wesam al D. to eight years including the time he has previously served, which effectively sets free the man known as the Dutch roadside bomber.

The US was “very disappointed” about the Dutch court’s decision, a US justice ministry spokesperson said.
Iraqi born Wesam al D., dubbed as the roadside bomber, was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment by a Federal court in Washington DC in April last year, accused of planting roadside bombs in Iraq. The court also gave an 18-month sentence to the defendant for assaulting a jail guard in December 2007.

Wesam al D. was arrested in the Dutch city of Amersfoort, his place of residence, in 2005. Two years later he was extradited to the US, under an agreement that he would be tried in a civilian court and that he can return to the Netherlands to serve his sentence. He was returned to the Netherlands in May this year, and has since then been held in a Dutch prison.

In August Dutch state prosecutors demanded that al D. sit out a sentence of 16 years in the Netherlands, a sentence which would have been closer to what the US had intended, the US justice ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday.