City council wants debate on Amsterdam's anti-radicalization policy after official's suspension

The Amsterdam city council requested an urgent debate on the city's anti-radicalization policy following the suspension of city official Saadia a.-.T. of the Radicalization and Polarization Department. The city council wants to know from mayor Eberhard van der Laan whether the municipality responded adequately to reports about radicalized youth in the city, Het Parool reports.

Saadia a.-.T. was Van der Laan's right hand in the area of radicalization. She was recently suspended while a criminal investigation is ongoing against her for fraud and conflicts of interest.

According to recent reports in the Telegraaf, Saadia a.-.T. missed signals of radicalization. She underestimated signals about radicalizing young people in Amsterdam and failed to investigate evidence that recruiters were active in the city, the Telegraaf reported.

"We want the complete information on the table", Reinier van Dantzig, faction leader of the D66 in Amsterdam, said to Het Parool. "The investigation into fraud and conflicts of interest lies with the Public Prosecutor, politicians play no role in that. But we want to know if any reports were ignored, whether the municipal service is chaos and whether a club of friends make up the service, without contradictions being organized. We can't check whether the reports are correct.

Almost all parties in the city council signed the request for a debate, according to the newspaper.