Supreme Court: Not legal to strip ISIS woman of her Danish citizenship

Today, the Supreme Court ruled that it was not in accordance with the proportionality requirement when a woman was deprived of her Danish citizenship.

Joined the Islamic State

In 2015, at the age of 20, the woman traveled to Syria, where she settled and joined the Islamic State.

She married a man who was a member of the ISIS and had children with him.

She stayed in an area controlled by ISIS until she was captured in March 2019.

Since then, she has stayed with her children in al-Hol camp and later in al-Roj camp.

On 17 June 2020, the Ministry of Immigration and Integration made a decision to strip the woman of her Danish citizenship.

The woman has not denied that the way she had acted by traveling to Syria and joining the terrorist organization Islamic State was of such seriousness that she could initially be deprived of her Danish citizenship, but she believed that the decision was contrary to the principle of proportionality and that the starting point should therefore be departed from.

When the case was heard by the Eastern High Court in May last year, the court found that it was okay to strip the woman of her Danish citizenship.

In its ruling on Wednesday, the Supreme Court emphasized that the woman has neither resided in Iran nor resided in Iran for a long time, just as she has no contact with relatives in Iran or speaks Farsi. Thus, the Supreme Court found that she has only a very poor connection to Iran and therefore it was not in accordance with the proportionality requirement when the ministry stripped the woman of her citizenship.