Somali-born Dutch MP may keep citizenship, reports say

AMSTERDAM - Somali-born Dutch lawmaker Ayaan Hirsi Ali may keep her Dutch citizenship despite lying on an asylum application, Dutch TV has reported.

Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk has reconsidered her decision to strip Hirsi Ali of her citizenship, RTL Nieuws quoted unnamed sources in The Hague as saying.

A spokesman for Verdonk told the broadcaster he had no knowledge of the report.

Verdonk, a hardliner dubbed "Iron Rita" for her tough stance on immigration, came under intense pressure after she decided to strip Hirsi Ali, an outspoken critic of Islam, of her citizenship last month.

Furious Dutch lawmakers forced the minister, who belongs to the centre-right coalition, to reconsider her decision over the next weeks on Hirsi Ali, a fellow member of the VVD party.

Hirsi Ali, who has drawn death threats for her fight for the rights of Muslim women, said she would step down as a lawmaker and leave the Netherlands.

The American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, has offered her a job but she has not said if she has accepted the offer.

The 36-year-old went into hiding in 2004 when an Islamic militant killed Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh after he directed a film Hirsi Ali wrote accusing Islam of suppressing women.

Hirsi Ali, whose real name is Hirsi Magan, returned to parliament a few months later but has continued to live under heavy guard.

On her asylum application she pretended she had come to the Netherlands from war-hit Somalia, rather than via Kenya and Germany. Refugees are usually required to apply for asylum in the first safe country they reach after fleeing.

However, she said those facts had been public knowledge when the VVD chose her as a candidate for parliament in 2002.

Verdonk has championed a plan to expel 26,000 unsuccessful asylum seekers and taken other controversial decisions, such as rejecting fast-track Dutch citizenship for Ivorian footballer Salomon Kalou to allow him to play in the soccer World Cup.

- REUTERS