Belgium did not overstep the line when it stripped two convicted terrorists of their Belgian nationality in 2017, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Thursday.
The convicted terrorists were Malika El Aroud – also known to the general public as the "black widow of jihad" – and Bilal Soughir. In view of the offences they both committed, the court felt that both had "seriously failed in their duties as Belgian citizens" and stripped them of their Belgian nationality. In its decision at the time, the court noted that both applicants had another nationality.
Both contested that Belgium had stripped them of their Belgian nationality, but the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg ruled against them on Thursday. "The Belgian authorities did not exceed their broad discretion" and the measures in question were "necessary in a democratic society," the judgment stated.
El Aroud and Soughir were five and three years old when they arrived in Belgium from Morocco and Tunisia, respectively. Under Article 12bis of the Belgian Nationality Code, they acquired Belgian nationality by a declaration of nationality, in 2000 and 2001 respectively.
Recruiting jihadists
In 2010, El Aroud was sentenced to eight years in prison for her role as a leader of a terrorist organisation for offences committed between 2007 and 2008. She was specifically convicted of having set up and run a cell with her husband to recruit potential jihadists who could then join al-Qaeda and take part in its terrorist activities.
El Aroud served her sentence and was released in 2016. However, the verdict no longer matters for her: she died last year.
Malika El Aroud, pictured Tuesday 02 November 2010, on the first day of the trial in front of Brussels appeal court of Malika El Aroud for terrosim, suspect of a possible Belgian Al Qaeda network. Credit: Belga / Bas Boegarts
Soughir was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for his role as a member of a terrorist organisation in 2008, in respect of offences committed between 2004 and 2005.
He was convicted, in particular, of having been the leader of a terrorist group by motivating, mentoring and providing financial support to four individuals (including the Belgian Muriel Degauque) who had travelled to Iraq to engage in armed jihad. He served his sentence and was released in 2011.
