Fatima H. from Tilburg, who was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison last year for years of participation in the terrorist organization IS, will get her Dutch nationality back. The Council of State announced this on Wednesday. The council reverses the decision of the State Secretary for Justice and Security who previously declared her an undesirable person and who withdrew her Dutch citizenship.
According to the highest administrative judges, the State Secretary paid too little attention to the interests of her minor Dutch children aged 5 and 7 years. They have Dutch nationality and have been living in the Netherlands since the end of 2019. They also go to school here.
Automatic firearm
The woman was 17 when she left for Syria in 2013. There she married an IS fighter. At the time, she openly glorified IS’ methods and allowed herself to be photographed with an automatic firearm.
Fatima H. was in the IS-controlled area until early 2019, where she had two children. In the spring of 2019 she ended up in a Kurdish camp. In that year, the woman reported to the Dutch embassy in Ankara with her children and traveled to the Netherlands with a Turkish emergency document. Since then she has been in prison in the Netherlands.
Danger to National Security
The Council of State believes that the government has well substantiated in its declaration that the Tilburg woman is a danger to national security. However, too little account has been taken of the interests of the children. It bases this on case law of the European Court of Human Rights. That article establishes the right to family and private life.
Because revoking Dutch citizenship is linked to declaring someone undesirable, both decisions of State Secretary Broekers-Knol have been annulled.
A spokeswoman for current State Secretary Eric van der Burg could not yet say whether a new procedure against Fatima H. will be started. “We are studying the ruling and are not yet anticipating the consequences for the time being.”
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