The legal case against the Netherlands’ only convicted female terrorist suspect must be heard again, the High Court ruled on Tuesday.

Soumaya Sahla was jailed for four years in 2008 for her ‘marginal’ role in a terrorist organisation which centred on Samir Azzouz.
Azzouz was jailed for nine years for membership of a terrorist organisation, plotting attacks on political targets and for recruiting people for the armed struggle against ‘the enemies of Islam’. Four others were sentenced to between six months and eight years.
Recordings
The High Court said the case against Sahla must be heard again because the defence was not given access to recordings made of tapped telephone conversations nor was it allowed to question an anonymous secret service contact.
These were both ‘crucial’ pieces of evidence and the brief summaries provided by the secret service were inadequate, the court said.
One important phone call apparently concerned Sahla asking her sister, who worked in a pharmacy, to provide addresses of politicians who used its services. But the defence was not allowed to question the veracity of this conversation, the court said.
An appeal by another of the group convicted in 2008, Nouriddin el Fahtni, was dismissed by the court but his sentence was reduced from eight years to seven years four months. El Fahtni is Sahla’s ex-husband.
Earlier stories
Terrorist Samir Azzouz jailed for nine years