Netherlands says OK for biker gangs to fight Islamic State

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/netherlands-says-ok-for-biker-gangs-to-f
ight-islamic-state/ar-AA6Nval

The Dutch public prosecutor said on Tuesday that motorbike gang members whohave reportedly joined Kurds battling the Islamic State group in Iraq arenot necessarily committing any crime.
"Joining a foreign armed force was previously punishable, now it's no longerforbidden," public prosecutor spokesman Wim de Bruin told AFP.
"You just can't join a fight against the Netherlands," he told AFP afterreports emerged that Dutch bikers from the No Surrender gang were fightingIS insurgents alongside Kurds in northern Iraq.
The head of No Surrender, Klaas Otto, told state broadcaster NOS that threemembers who travelled to near Mosul in northern Iraq were from Dutch citiesAmsterdam, Rotterdam and Breda.
A photograph on a Dutch-Kurdish Twitter account shows a tattooed Dutchmancalled Ron in military garb, holding a Kalashnikov assault rifle while satwith a Kurdish comrade.
Video footage apparently from a Kurdish broadcaster shows an armed Europeanman with Kurdish fighters saying in Dutch: "The Kurds have been underpressure for a long time."
Many countries including the Netherlands have been clamping down on theirnationals trying to join IS jihadists who have taken over swathes of Iraqand Syria.
Measures include confiscating would-be jihadists' passports beforetravelling and threatening prosecution should they return.
"The big difference with IS is that it's listed as a terrorist group," saidDe Bruin.
"That means that even preparing to join IS is punishable."