Dutch police ignored Iranian activist's safety concerns before murder: report

In the years before his assassination in The Hague in November 2017, the Iranian-Dutch political activist Ahmad Mola Nissi made at least seven reports to the police regarding risks to his safety. Little to nothing was done with these reports, the Volkskrant reports based on a police report on Nissi.

Nissi was active in the political wing of the Asmla, a movement that champions the Ahwazi people of Khuzestan but is classified as a terrorist organization by the Iranian regime. According to the newspaper, the police report dating from November 2017 shows that Nissi had been threatened and harassed for years and repeatedly informed the police about it without much happening.

Nissi made several reports of death threats by the Iranian authorities. In a few cases, the police escalated the matter to the regional intelligence service RID, but Nissiw was mostly left to his own devices. “It is quite conceivable that this could lead to questions from the Council or Parliament, or questions from the Nissi family in which there could possibly be a discussion about possible negligence on the part of the police,” the report states, according to the Volkskrant.

The police report lists Nissi’s contacts with the police, starting with a mention that his family moved from Maastricht to The Hague in 2010 “as a result of a threat.” In 2010 and 2011, Nissi reported more threats with no result. In 2012, he told the police that he feared for his life “after contact from Iran’s secret service.” The police presented this report to the RID, which set up an “appointment on location” (AOL) for three months. The AOL is a measure usually taken in stalking cases. It basically means that the case remains in the police system and they’lll respond more quickly if the person involves calls.

Later in 2012, Nissi again called the police to report that he was on a hit list. In January 2013, he went to the police again, this time with an acquaintance to corroborate that he was on an Iranian hit list. “Nissi was informed that the agency could not protect him properly and that he had to take precautions himself,” according to the police report. In 2014, Nissi reported that he had been sentenced to death, that his friend’s house had been set on fire, and that Iranians beat up another friend in Venlo. The police escalated this report to the RID, which set up an AOL for six months.

In July 2014, Nissi reported seeing a suspicious man at an Asmla rally. “Received a note under the windshield wiper with his brother’s address,” the police said in the report. His last report before his assassination was in 2016, when the money he had set aside to start a business was stolen.

In 2017, Nissi became the second of two Iranian dissidents murdered in the Netherlands. The first murder happened in 2015. In 2018, the Netherlands expelled two Iranian diplomats without saying why. After a commotion in Denmark and France about Iranian assassination plots in Europe, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stef Blok, said in January 2019 that intelligence agency AVID had “strong indications” that Iran was behind the two murders. In July 2020, another Iranian refugee, 64-year-old Sadegh Zarza, was attacked in Leeuwarden. He survived the 20 stab wounds administered by an Iranian attacker.

Last year, the research program Argos reported that before Nissi’s death, an Iranian asylum seeker warned both the immigration service IND and intelligence service AIVD that there was an assassination plot against Nissi.