Judgment concerning Belgium
In the case of El Aroud and Soughir v. Belgium the Court held that there had been no violation of the right to respect for private and family life.
The case concerned the deprivation of Belgian nationality ordered in respect of two dual nationals who had been convicted in Belgium on terrorism-related charges.
The Court reiterates that terrorist violence was in itself a grave threat to human rights and, in consequence, that it was legitimate that States should take action in respect of individuals who had been convicted at final instance of offences which directly undermined the values of the Convention. The Court also took account of the fact that the applicants had another nationality and the decision to deprive them of their Belgian nationality had not had the effect of rendering them stateless. In consequence, it held that the Belgian authorities had not exceeded their wide discretion and that the measures in question had been “necessary in a democratic society”.