Shamima Begum has lost her citizenship appeal and won’t return to the UK
In 2015, Shamima left the United Kingdom at the age of 15, along with two other London schoolgirls, to support IS in Syria.
According to Daily Mail, Ms. Begum married a 23-year-old ISIS fighter ten days after arriving in Syria.
“Her British citizenship was revoked on national security grounds by the former home secretary Sajid Javid shortly after she was found, nine months pregnant, in a Syrian refugee camp in February 2019.”
Judges ruled that she posed a threat to the country’s national security. Despite the ‘credible suspicion’ about Ms. Begum being trafficked to Syria for ‘sexual exploitation’ there was not enough evidence, and her appeal could not succeed.
The now-23-year-old girl has lost her citizenship appeal case and is not allowed to enter the UK.
“Judge Robert Jay gave the decision on Wednesday following a five-day hearing in November, during which her lawyers argued the UK Home Office had a duty to investigate whether she was a victim of trafficking before removing her citizenship,” CNN reported.
“Begum, now 23 and living in a camp in northern Syria, flew to the country in 2015 with two school friends to join the ISIS terror group. In February 2019, she re-emerged and made international headlines as an “ISIS bride” after pleading with the UK government to be allowed to return to her home country for the birth of her son.”
However, her son died in 2019 in a Syrian refugee camp. It was also reported that she had two other children who died as infants before that baby.
Following the ruling on Wednesday, Shemima’s lawyers stated that her battle to return to the UK is ‘nowhere near over.’
“One revelation contained in today’s judgment was the reaction of MI5 spies to Ms. Begum’s numerous media appearances, which they branded ‘self-serving’,” per Daily Mail.
The judgment read, “In September and November 2021, Ms. Begum was interviewed by Good Morning Britain and Sky News. She denied reports in the media that she had sewn suicide vests or been part of ISIL’s [ISIS’s] morality police and claimed that her activities were limited to being a housewife and mother.”
“The MI5 assessment is that many of the comments Ms. Begum made in her later interviews are likely to have been self-serving and an attempt to obtain favorable media coverage in the run-up to this appeal.”
What are your views on this story? Let us know in the comments.
Sources: Daily Mail – CNN
