Court orders Dutch State to bring man in U.S. prison for 40 years back to Netherlands

The Dutch state must bring back Jaitsen Singh, the longest-serving Dutch prisoner abroad, from the United States to the Netherlands, the Court of Appeal in The Hague ruled on Tuesday. His lawyer confirmed the ruling following a report by de Volkskrant.

Singh, a Dutch citizen of Surinamese heritage, is 80 years old and has been in custody in the United States for 41 years. In 1986, he was sentenced to 56 years in prison for arranging the murder of his wife and stepdaughter. He has always denied involvement. It later emerged that a key witness in his case had been bribed.

Singh has long fought to serve the remainder of his sentence in the Netherlands. Nearly two years ago, an attempt to secure his transfer failed.

His lawyer, Rachel Imamkhan, called the ruling “an important victory for Singh, who has been fighting for years for repatriation and medical care in his own country.” She also said the case “raises broader questions about the responsibility of the Dutch state toward its citizens in foreign detention.”

The court found that the earlier rejections of Singh’s requests were wrongly decided. His humanitarian circumstances justify his transfer to the Netherlands, allowing surviving family members to visit him. The court further ordered that the request for transfer from the United States must be submitted to the authorities there within four weeks.