[JURIST] Dutch Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk [official profile] on Tuesday reversed an earlier decision revoking citizenship from former MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali [BBC profile], who was born in Somalia. Ali resigned from the Dutch parliament [JURIST report] in May after Verdonk declared Hirsi Ali's 1997 naturalization invalid because she lied on the application. During her 2002 confirmation hearings, Ali admitted to lying about her name, her date of birth, and her previous residency in Saudi Arabia and Kenya when she applied for Dutch citizenship in 1992. In Tuesday's decision, however, Verdonk said that the application sufficiently identified Ali [press release] in 1997 to qualify for Dutch citizenship and that Ali did not lie when she gave her grandfather's name as her own on the application because such name is permitted under Somali law.

Ali recently accepted a position at the conservative think-tank American Enterprise Institute [think-tank website] and will reside in the US rather than returning to the Netherlands. AP has more.