The VVD has expelled Soumaya Sahla as a member “with immediate effect” because the party believes that she has “stealed money” from the sick former VVD leader Frits Bolkestein. That accusation was made by Bolkestein’s family in a Article published in opinion magazine on Monday HP/De Tijd. The VVD states to have had contact with Bolkestein’s family and the “correctness of the message.” [te hebben] established”. Sahla herself says that Bolkestein has “donated” 85,000 euros to her.
There has been a lot of discussion about 40-year-old Sahla in the past decade. In 2014, she was convicted for her membership of the terrorist Hofstad group, a now inactive group of radical Islamic youth responsible for, among other things, the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2004. She also had an automatic weapon in her possession during an arrest in 2005. She was imprisoned for almost three years between 2005 and 2008.
After she was released, Sahla stated that she had renounced her old radical ideas. She started studying political science and developed into an expert in the field of deradicalization. Sahla joined the VVD through former VVD party leader Bolkenstein. He took her under his wing: Sahla says otherwise HP/De Tijd that he “considers her his daughter.” Sahla became an advisor for the VVD on the topics of security and justice, and ‘chairman’ in a discussion group on terrorism and radicalization.
Attack Wilders
In 2022, Sahla resigned from her position at the VVD after Wilders said the party had a “terrorist” in its ranks. Previously, the court in The Hague also convicted Sahla for planning an attack on Wilders, but that conviction was withdrawn in cassation. The VVD then suddenly blamed her for the fact that Sahla had never publicly apologized for her past. She only apologized after Wilders’ attack. Sahla spoke of “black pages” in her life. She was allowed to remain a member.
According to HP/De Tijd the now 90-year-old Bolkestein paid the rent on Sahla’s apartment during a period of serious illness – he barely survived a major operation in 2021. The VVD celebrity is also said to have given her living allowance and other “large amounts”, and Sahla made “inexplicable withdrawals” of cash with Bolkenstein’s debit card. In rebuttal, Sahla says that Bolkenstein herself proposed financing her PhD program in Leiden. The professor under whom Sahla is doing her PhD confirms this to the news magazine, which Frits Bolkestein himself does not mention in the article.
Role at the BBB
HP/De Tijd also claims that Sahla recently declared behind the back of the BoerCurgerBeweging (BBB) that he has an important role in the party. For example, she is said to have held conversations with the suggestion that she was an “advisor” to the party, or involved in the recruitment of politicians for a possible business cabinet. BBB leader Caroline van der Plas says in a response to the news magazine that she has never met or spoken to Sahla. BBB has reported the issue to the National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security and Security of the House of Representatives.