The District Court in The Hague sentenced a 33-year-old man, identified as Ghalied A., to four years in prison for the rape of an international student. According to NOS, the defendant gained access to the victim’s room in a student complex by posing as a police officer and claiming he was conducting a drug investigation.
The September 2024 Incident
On the night of September 12, 2024, the victim, a South Korean student who had been in the Netherlands for only one month, allowed Ghalied A. into her room. De Rechtspraak reports that the defendant forced the woman to stand naked against a wall and perform squats before sexually assaulting her. The victim, who did not speak Dutch and was unfamiliar with local police procedures, contacted emergency services immediately after the incident by locking herself in her bathroom.
Police officers arrived to find the victim in distress. Due to the trauma of the event, the student—who had moved to Europe with the intent of pursuing her studies—returned to South Korea shortly after the incident, according to NOS.
Patterns of Deception and Prior Conduct
The investigation revealed a recurring pattern of behavior. According to De Rechtspraak, Ghalied A. attempted a nearly identical "police ruse" at the same student complex several months later, though he was unable to gain entry. Prosecutors also linked the defendant to incidents of public indecency at a different student complex in 2025, where he was accused of masturbating in front of students.
Moordplekken.nl notes that the defendant had previous criminal history, including a 2007 conviction for similar offenses and a 2022 conviction for stalking an ex-partner. Because the rape occurred during the probationary period of a prior sentence, the court ordered the defendant to serve an additional eight weeks of previously suspended prison time.
The Court’s Ruling on Sentencing
The Public Prosecution Service had requested a five-year prison sentence combined with a mandatory psychiatric treatment order, known as tbs. However, the court declined to impose the tbs measure.
As reported by De Rechtspraak, the court found that the defendant’s refusal to cooperate with psychological evaluations at the Pieter Baan Centrum—a forensic psychiatric observation clinic—left experts without sufficient information to establish a formal mental disorder, which is a legal requirement for such a measure. In its verdict, the court noted that the victim’s testimony was "concrete, detailed, and consistent," and was corroborated by the arrival of the police and subsequent forensic evidence.
Following his four-year prison term, the defendant will be subject to a behavioral intervention measure, allowing for long-term, intensive monitoring to protect public safety.
Why the Defendant Avoided Mandatory Psychiatric Treatment
Why was the defendant not given a mandatory psychiatric treatment order (tbs)?
Under Dutch law, a mandatory tbs order requires a formal diagnosis of a mental disorder. Because Ghalied A. refused to participate in the psychiatric assessment process during his time at the Pieter Baan Centrum, experts were unable to provide the court with the necessary diagnosis to justify the measure, according to Moordplekken.nl.
How did the court verify the victim’s account?
The court relied on "linkage evidence" (bridging certificate) and the consistency of the victim’s statements. De Rechtspraak reports that the victim’s testimony was supported by the immediate observations of the responding officers, who found her in a state of distress, and by the defendant’s own admissions regarding his presence at the scene and his subsequent attempts to use the same ruse at other student housing locations.
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