Ayaan Hirsi Ali wants to force the Netherlands to continue paying for her security. The Hague stopped providing payments for the former MP because she moved to the United States. However, she insists that the Dutch government promised to continue paying. The former politician has been receiving death threats for years because of her continual criticism of Islam. In order to try and prove that the Netherlands did make promises on her security, Ms Hirsi Ali has asked a court in The Hague to hear a number of witnesses. The first, a former political assistant of hers, will be heard this week. Her political patron, former minister Gerrit Zalm, and the former National Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism will be questioned later. After these preliminary hearings, Ms Hirsi Ali and her lawyer will decide whether there is sufficient evidence to initiate proceedings against the Dutch state.
'State promised Hirsi Ali protection'
The Dutch government agreed to remain responsible for the security of anti-Islam campaigner Ayaan Hirsi Ali after she moved to the US, the Telegraaf reports a witness as telling a Dutch judicial hearing on Wednesday. Iris van den Berg, who worked for Hirsi Ali at the time, told the court she was present at a meeting in June 2006 where anti terrorism coordinator Tjibbe Joustra told the former MP that the state would continue paying for her bodyguards at home and abroad. No end date for this agreement was given, she says. In December, Joustra and former finance minister Gerrit Zalm will give their version of events to the judicial hearing. In the meantime, Hirsi Ali has reportedly managed to raise enough money to pay for her own security.