mobanmarketGerman dual nationals who fight for Islamic State will lose their citizenship under new measures announced by Angela Merkel’s government on Monday.
The move follows the decision of Sajid Javid, the British home secretary, to strip former Bethnal Green schoolgirl Shamima Begum of her British nationality after she travelled to Syria to join Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil)
“This is a signal that, beyond being punishable by the law, you also face losing your nationality if you join a terrorist militia,” a spokesman for the German interior ministry said.
A spokesman for Mrs Merkel stressed that the German measure would only apply to those who take up arms on Isil’s behalf.
“This is about concrete participation in hostilities for a terrorist militia abroad,” Steffen Seibert said.
But opposition politicians accused Germany of failing to take responsibility for the actions of its own citizens while others said the move was too late.
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The new law will only apply to those who join Isil in future after Mrs Merkel’s government rejected calls to make it retroactive. With the jihadists in retreat across Syria and Iraq few are expected to join in the near future.
The law will not affect dozens of German Isil volunteers who have already been captured by US-backed forces. Alongside the UK and other European countries, Germany has been resisting US pressure to take back its citizens captured fighting for the jihadists.
The new measure will only apply to adult dual nationals as Germany’s constitution forbids making its citizens stateless. A high proportion of Germans who have joined Isil come from immigrant communities and many are believed to hold dual nationality.
“I have zero empathy for such people and none for what they have done. They must be brought to trial,” said Ralf Stegner of Mrs Merkel’s coalition partners, the centre-Left Social Democrats (SPD).
“But it is one of the fundamental values of our liberal democracy that laws are not made retroactive… This distinguishes our state from dictatorships and unjust states – and that difference should be of great value to us.”
Christian Dürr of the opposition Free Democrats (FDP) said his party had been calling for such a measure for years and accused the SPD of blocking it.
“The federal government is trying to escape its responsibility,” Gökay Akbulut of the opposition Left Party said, and called for a special international tribunal to try Germans and other Europeans who fight for Isil.