The Dutch government must ask the United States to transfer Jaitsen Singh, the longest-serving Dutch prisoner abroad, to the Netherlands, appeal court judges in The Hague have ruled.

Singh, now 80, has spent 41 years behind bars in California. He was sentenced in 1986 to 56 years for arranging the murder of his wife and stepdaughter, a crime he has always denied.

His lawyer, Rachel Imamkhan, told reporters the ruling was “an important victory” for Singh, who is in poor health and has long campaigned to serve the remainder of his sentence closer to his family.

“This procedure we have won is not about the contents of the case, but only about whether the Netherlands must ask the US to let him serve the rest of his sentence here,” Imamkhan said.

Imamkhan said her focus now is to ensure the Dutch state sends the formal transfer request within four weeks, as the court ordered. “The state can still appeal, but that has no suspensive effect. The letter must go out. The procedure in the US can still take two years, but it could also move faster.”

‘Special circumstances’

The court said earlier refusals to bring Singh back were wrongly based on the argument that he no longer had ties with the Netherlands, having lived in California since 1970 and spending only a few years of his life in the Netherlands. He was born in Suriname.

“Singh is still a Dutch national,” Imamkhan said. “That the court has now ruled the state must repatriate him is purely because of special circumstances – his old age and his poor health.”