Belgium refuses political asylum to Moroccan jihadi Black Widow

Belgium refuses political asylum to Moroccan jihadi Black Widow

The Belgian Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRS) rejected the request of a Moroccan jihadi, Malika El Aroud, for political asylum in Belgium after the country considered expelling her to Morocco.

The Belgian authorities stated that El Aroud has proved unworthy of international protection because she has not expressed “remorse” for her actions.

Belgium stripped El Aroud, an al-Qaeda member, of her Belgian citizenship in November 17, after a Belgian court in 2010 sentenced her to eight years in prison for her involvement with terrorists.

In October 2018, Belgian authorities announced the country may repatriate El Aroud to Morocco in line with Belgium’s new migration and asylum legislation which went into force in May 2017, deeming her the “most dangerous woman in Belgium.”

The law dictates the repatriation of criminals whose behaviors threaten Belgium’s national security.

El Aroud’s lawyer, however, said that expelling her may prove treacherous, suggesting that she may be tortured in Morocco.

Born in 1960, El Aroud is the widow of a Taliban jihadi, Abdessatar Dahmane, who had posed as a television journalist in Belgium to assassinate the Afghan political and military leader Ahmad Shah Massoud.

In the early 2000s, El Aroud was known for her Islamist writings which she used to post on the internet in French under the name “Oum Obeyda,” in attempts to rally women to adopt her and her husband’s radical ideology.

Source: Morocco World News