2 Dutch men guilty of preparing to fight in Syria
Netherlands first conviction of citizens attempting to join forces fighting in Syria, one charged with plan to commit murder, other with preparing to detonate explosives
A Dutch court has found two men guilty of preparing to travel to Syria to fight with rebels battling to oust President Bashar Assad,
verdicts prosecutors say will help other such cases in the future.
Wednesday's convictions by a court in Rotterdam are the first in the Netherlands of suspects who wanted to join rebels in Syria's devastating civil war.
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The court convicted one suspect of making preparations for murder and another for preparing to detonate explosives.
One of the suspects was sentenced to a year's imprisonment and the other was ordered to spend a year in a psychiatric hospital. Their full identities were not released.
Prosecution spokesman Paul van der Zanden says the convictions clarify how best to prosecute people who want to travel to Syria to fight.
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