A suspected Dutch jihadist is believed to have been involved in the deadly kidnapping of a British couple in South Africa and of contacting a top Islamic State group official, Dutch media reported yesterday. The 29-year-old man, only identified as "Mohammed G", briefly appeared in the Rotterdam District Court where he was accused of "belonging to a terrorist organisation," Dutch news reports said. Earlier this year the bodies of renowned British botanists Rachel Saunders, 63, and her husband Rodney Saunders, 74, were discovered after they went missing during a trip to look for rare seeds in South Africa's northeast KwaZulu-Natal province.

The two are believed to have been kidnapped by suspected jihadists, who raised an IS flag in a reserve in the region where the Saunders disappeared. Mohammed G, from Limburg province in the south of the Netherlands, is "suspected of involvement in the fatal kidnapping in South Africa," Dutch national news agency ANP said. Dutch prosecutors alleged Mohammed G "tried to buy bitcoins" using Rachel Saunders' credit card details, ANP said.