A radicalized foreign citizen was declared undesirable for a 10-year period

20 August 2019

Upon notification from the Romanian Intelligence Service, the Bucharest Court of Appeal ordered that the Moroccan citizen A.A. be declared undesirable in Romania for a period of 10 years.

A.A. came to Romania on a long-stay employment visa and came to the attention of the Service due to certain information according to which he was undergoing a radicalization process and was involved in online extremist-terrorist propaganda activities.

The operational intelligence measures conducted in this case revealed that the individual in question carried out activities which are defined as national security threats according to art. 3 (i) and (l) of Law 51/1991 on the national security of Romania. More specifically, the foreign citizen supported certain terrorist entities operating in the Middle East and was systematically involved in online activities aimed at accessing and distributing the terrorist propaganda messages promoted by such entities.

At the same time, A.A.’s behavior, attitudes and opinions were characteristic of someone undergoing a radicalization process and there is a reasonable suspicion, based on his personal profile and the activities he was engaged in, that he is likely to go one step further and be willing to become a martyr.

Following the decision of the Bucharest Court of Appeal, A.A. was expelled from the country by the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ General Inspectorate for Immigration.

This measure is part of the preventive counterterrorist activities carried out by the Romanian Intelligence Service, in cooperation with its partner organizations from the National System for Preventing and Countering Terrorism. In its capacity as national authority responsible for preventing and countering terrorism, the main mission of the Service is to prevent any terrorist risks or threats.

Romania, as a member of the United Nations Organization, has undertaken the obligation

• to deny residence in the country to individuals who are involved in financing, planning, supporting or perpetrating terrorist acts or to deny shelter to such persons;
• to prevent individuals who finance, plan, facilitate or perpetrate terrorist acts from using its territory for such purposes against other states or against the citizens of other states.