21 Facts About Ulysse Ellian

Ulysse Ellian was born on 17 September 1988 and is an Afghan-born Dutch lawyer and politician.

Ulysse Ellian has been a member of the House of Representatives since the 2021 general election on behalf of the conservative-liberal People's Party for Freedom and Democracy.

Ulysse Ellian was born in 1988 in the Afghan capital Kabul as the son of Afshin Ellian, an Iranian law professor, poet, and critic of political Islam.

Ulysse Ellian's father had fled the Iranian regime and had met Ellian's mother in Afghanistan.

Ulysse Ellian's family came to the Netherlands in 1989, and Ellian grew up with his younger sister in Tilburg and Almere.

Ulysse Ellian studied legal theory at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and became a teacher and researcher specialized in private law at the university after his graduation in 2011.

Ulysse Ellian started working as a lawyer, and he served as a staff member of the parliamentary inquiry into the failed high-speed rail service Fyra between 2013 and 2015.

Ulysse Ellian was elected to the Almere municipal council in the 2018 municipal elections as the VVD's second candidate after he had assisted the party's caucus in Almere since 2014.

Ulysse Ellian succeeded Hilde van Garderen as the VVD's caucus leader when Van Garderen became an alderwoman two months after the March 2018 election.

Ulysse Ellian received security protection in 2019 after he had condemned the alleged role of the Iranian government in the murder of Mohammad-Reza Kolahi, who had been accused by Iran of having been involved in the Hafte Tir bombing in 1981 and lived in Almere under a false identity.

Ulysse Ellian responded that he had not told any falsehoods, and he called the complaint "unacceptable intimidation of a politician".

Ulysse Ellian ran for member of parliament in the March 2021 general election, being placed 22nd on the VVD's party list.

Ulysse Ellian vacated his seat in the Almere municipal council eight days after the election.

Ulysse Ellian's focus was on justice, law, constitutional matters, and antisemitism.

In October 2022, in reaction to comments by Minister for Legal Protection Franc Weerwind that prisoners with a life sentence would be released more often, Ulysse Ellian posted on social media platform Twitter that Weerwind "would not rest before all criminals vote D66".

Ulysse Ellian took back his words shortly after following criticism.

Ulysse Ellian has worked on the government's approach to organized crime.

Ulysse Ellian filed a motion to increase scrutiny of contact with the outside world from prisoners at Nieuw Vosseveld, where high-level criminals including Ridouan Taghi are housed, in order to prevent them from continuing their criminal activities.

Ulysse Ellian revealed in an interview in late 2022 that he had been under protection since a few months without naming the nature of the threat.

Ulysse Ellian later told RTL Nieuws that he had received an intimidating message from the Iranian embassy in the Netherlands, stating that the country considered him to be an Iranian citizen subject to its laws, several weeks after he had become a member of parliament.

Ulysse Ellian switched to the VVD in 2021 and became a municipal councilor two years later.