The Court of Appeal in The Hague has ordered the State of the Netherlands to submit a request under the Transfer of Enforcement of Criminal Judgments Act (in Dutch: Wet overdracht tenuitvoerlegging strafvonnissen; ‘WOTS’) to the US authorities within four weeks, to bring Mr. Jaitsen Singh back to the Netherlands. The State is also obligated to take all steps that are reasonably necessary to effectuate the actual transfer of Singh’s sentence from the United States to the Netherlands.
Mr. Singh is an 80-year-old Dutch citizen who has been incarcerated in a US-prison for over 40 years. This makes him the longest-serving Dutch citizen abroad. He suffers from serious health problems and has spent years trying to return to the Netherlands, where his family resides, through a transfer of his prison sentence. So far, the State has refused to cooperate, despite several motions in which the House of Representatives urged the Minister to transfer Singh.
In a civil suit brought by Singh, the Court of Appeal has now ruled that the State must make every effort to transfer Singh to the Netherlands. The Court of Appeal held that the Minister’s decision to refuse the transfer of the prison sentence is disproportionate in light of the consequences of that refusal for Singh. The Court of Appeal also held that the humanitarian consequences of that decision –such as the fact that Singh no longer has family who can visit him in the United States, his very poor health condition and the fact that he may die in detention due to that poor health condition—must also be taken into account. Furthermore, the Court of Appeal considered the fact that serving the sentence in the United States is not in the interest of Singh’s resocialization, because he would be deported to the Netherlands upon release from prison.
This judgment is a significant victory for Singh, who has been campaigning for repatriation and medical care in his own country for years. The case also raises broader questions about the responsibility of the Dutch State towards its citizens who are detained abroad. in 20in
Mr. Singh was assisted in this case by lawyers Tom de Boer (of Prakken d’Oliveira), and Rachel Imamkhan (of Imamkhan Law Firm).
- The judgment is available (in Dutch) here: Gerechtshof Den Haag 26 augustus 2025, ECLI:NL:GHDHA:2025:1719
- Mr. Singh's plight was the subject of a Dutch documentary (2023) that is available here: 'Een Amerikaanse nachtmerrie' (An American nightmare).