Danish citizenship withdrawn due to fraud

Case no. 153/2016
Judgment delivered on 29 November 2016

The Prosecution Service
vs.
T

It was undisputed that T had acted fraudulently when he provided false information, as he claimed to be an Iraqi citizen, when he actually was Syrian, both when he came to Denmark in 1991 and was granted asylum, and when he applied for Danish citizenship in 1998. In addition, it was undisputed that he had acted intentionally, and that the fraud led to him being granted asylum and later Danish citizenship.

After having weighed the severity of the offence against the impact of withdrawal of citizenship on T, the Supreme Court held that the proportionality assessment did not show cause for derogating from the general rule of withdrawal of citizenship due to fraud.

In this regard, the Supreme Court assessed that it was not in contravention of Denmark's international obligations to apply the provision in the Danish Act on Nationality on withdrawal of citizenship with retroactive effect.

The High Court had reached the same conclusion.