The public prosecution service has requested that Jaitsen Singh, the Netherlands’ longest-serving prisoner abroad, should have his US sentence converted into a Dutch life sentence.

Prosecutors want the 81-year-old, who was convicted in America in 1986 for ordering the murder of his wife and stepdaughter, to serve that full life sentence in the Netherlands. His lawyer, Rachel Imamkhan, wants the sentence suspended and for Singh to be released once his medical care, health insurance and BSN have been sorted out.

Singh, who has acute leukaemia and is terminally ill, was flown back to the Netherlands in March after more than 42 years in California prisons.

The court is not being asked for a retrial or to reconsider his guilt. Its task is to convert the Californian sentence of “56 years to life” into a Dutch equivalent, a procedure known as exequatur that follows every prisoner transfer under the WOTS treaty (a Dutch law enabling Dutch citizens convicted outside the EU to serve their sentence in the Netherlands).

On that specific point, prosecutors and the defence agree. There is no Dutch equivalent of a 56-years-to-life sentence, and both sides accept that life imprisonment is the closest match.

Translating foreign sentences

The fight is over a rule built into the WOTS treaty: a sentence taken over from another country cannot be made heavier than the original. Imamkhan told the court that the Californian sentence carried parole eligibility that Singh should have been granted but never was. A Dutch life sentence without suspension, she argued, would be heavier than what he faced in the US and should therefore not be enforced.

Under Dutch life sentences, reviews are possible after 25 years, and a pardon request can be considered after 28. Singh has been in prison for more than 42 years.

Singh’s case has been the subject of Dutch political and legal pressure for more than a decade. An earlier attempt to transfer him to the Netherlands was rejected in 2021 on the grounds that he had insufficient ties to the country.

The key witness against him was later found to have been bribed by a prosecutor who was himself removed from the case, and there has never been a full review in the US. The Hague appeal court ordered the Dutch state last August to request his transfer, citing his age and poor health.

The court in Amsterdam will rule on 19 May.