JOHANSEN v. DENMARK DECISION
Please note that the application for Danish nationality lodged by [S.A.] was refused
on 3 February 2003.
Against this background, the Ministry of Immigration and Integration considers it a
fact that [S.A.] was a Tunisian national in the period from [the applicant’s] birth on ...
1990 until 3 July 2012.
According to Article 6(1) of the Code de la Nationalité Tunisienne (the Tunisian
Nationality Act) of 28 February 1963 as amended, a person acquires Tunisian
nationality at birth if the father is a Tunisian national. The Ministry of Immigration and
Integration has two versions of this Code, both of which are appended to this letter.
It further appears from an email of 12 August 2016 from the Tunisian Embassy in the
Hague to the Copenhagen Police that a child acquires Tunisian nationality if the father
is Tunisian and that it is irrelevant whether the child has also acquired another
nationality.
Against this background, the Ministry of Immigration and Integration considers it a
fact that [the applicant] acquired Tunisian nationality at birth.
The Ministry of Immigration and Integration has tried in vain to contact the relevant
Tunisian authorities to request information on [the applicant’s nationality status in
Tunisia, including whether [the applicant] has been deprived of or released from his
Tunisian nationality.
However, the Ministry of Immigration and Integration observes that it follows from
Article 33 of the Code de la Nationalité Tunisienne of 28 February 1963 as amended
that a person having acquired Tunisian nationality can be deprived of his Tunisian
nationality if he is convicted of an offence or crime against the internal and external
national security, if he commits acts incompatible with and harmful to the interests of
Tunisia on behalf of a foreign state, if he is convicted in Tunisia or abroad of an act that
is a criminal offence under Tunisian law and is sentenced to imprisonment for a term
of at least five years, or if he is convicted of draft evasion.
Under Article 34 of the same Code, a person’s nationality will only lapse if the
circumstances referred to in Article 33 occur within a 10-year period after Tunisian
nationality has been awarded. The claim for lapse of nationality must be made within
five years after the relevant act was committed.
As regards release, it appears from Article 39 of the Code de la Nationalité Tunisienne
of 28 February 1963 as amended that a Tunisian national can request release from his
Tunisian nationality. Such request must be registered with the Tunisian Ministry of
Justice.
The Ministry of Immigration and Integration does not have any information indicating
that [the applicant] has been deprived of or released from his Tunisian nationality.
Based on an overall assessment of the information available, the Ministry of
Immigration and Integration finds that [the applicant] is a Danish and a Tunisian
national and accordingly has dual nationality. ...”
10. The applicant maintained that before the criminal trial against him, he
had not known that he also held Tunisian nationality.
11. On 20 October 2017, for the purposes of the court proceedings, the
Danish Immigration Service (Udlændingestyrelsen) gathered information
concerning the applicant’s personal circumstances and drew up an assessment
of whether the prosecution should refrain from submitting a request for
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