Prosecution v. T, 211/2015, 8 June 2016
- 2016
- Denmark
Topics
Terrorism propagandaLegal bases
European Convention on Human RightsCourts
Supreme Court (Højesteret), DenmarkLaws
Right to respect for private and family lifeFacts
T had previously been sentenced to four years imprisonment for promoting terrorism by distributing propaganda from al-Qaeda and affiliated groups via Facebook posts, email and publishing books. To be decided at the constitutional court was whether T should be disqualified from his Danish citizenship, sentenced to extradition from Denmark and permanently banned from entering Denmark.
Legal grounds
1.4 Private life and Family life, 25.6 State crimes, 51.2 Extradition, 6.9 Other issues, 7.2 Disqualification, Human Rights, Criminal Law, Foreigner law.
Findings
According to Danish nationality laws, a person found guilty of terrorism charges may be disqualified from his Danish citizenship, provided he has citizenship in other countries. Whether such measures are taken by the court rests on an evaluation of the gravity of the case against the consequences for the individual. Though he has five children in Denmark, including an infant, and four grandchildren, the court emphasized that T had lived in his native Morocco until the age of 24, had received unemployment benefits for 22 of the 32 years he had lived in Denmark, and had not learned sufficient Danish to demonstrate an attachment. T was disqualified from his Danish citizenship, extradited to Morocco and banned permanently from re-entering Denmark. The ruling was found not to contradict Article 8 on the right to family life of the ECHR.