Soumaya Sahla

Soumaya Sahla (; born 5 July 1983) is a Dutch political scientist and convicted terrorist.

Born in The Hague, Sahla was arrested in 2005, when she was living with Nouredine el Fahtni, a member of the Islamic terrorist cell Hofstad Network. She spent three years in prison for illegal firearms possession and membership of a terrorist organization. Her conviction was upheld in 2016 by the Supreme Court of the Netherlands.

Sahla started studying political science in prison, and she continued with a PhD at Leiden University in 2018. She became an active member of the conservative-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) in 2017 after she befriended its former leader, Frits Bolkestein. Allegations that she had used their relationship to obtain money, denied by Sahla, resulted in her expulsion from the VVD in 2023.

Early life Sahla was born in 1983 in The Hague's Stationsbuurt, and she grew up in the city's Transvaal neighborhood. His father co-founded a mosque together with an Imam, and Sahla established its girl's association. Besides, she sat on a radicalization and extremism advisory board of the municipality of Amsterdam.