UK Supreme Court to rule on return of 'IS bride' Begum
- by Leland Aguilar
- in Entertaiment
- — Feb 26, 2021
The UK Supreme Court has ruled that British born Shamima Begum, who left the UK to join the islamic State in Syria, can not return home.
A woman who as a teenager ran away to join the Islamic State group has lost her bid to return to the United Kingdom to fight for the restoration of her citizenship, which was revoked on national security grounds.
The President of the Supreme Court, Lord Robert Reed, said that the UK Court of Appeal made four errors past year when it ruled that Begum should be allowed to return to the UK to carry out her appeal.
Begum, 21, who is being held in a detention camp in Syria, was stripped her of her British citizenship in 2019 but the Court of Appeal previously agreed she could only have a fair appeal of that decision if she were allowed back to Britain.
Five judges at the Supreme Court gave a unanimous decision in the case of Shamima Begum, whose legal battles have come to be seen as a test of how countries treat nationals who joined the jihadists.
Begum was 15 when she left home to join ISIS. This is "not a ideal solution as it is not known how long it may be before that is possible", he said.
Speaking at the time, Ms Begum's solicitor Daniel Furner said: "Ms Begum has never had a fair opportunity to give her side of the story".
Ms Begum then challenged the Home Office's decision to remove her citizenship. "But there is no flawless solution to a dilemma of the present kind", the UKSC determined.
She can not speak to her lawyers or participate in a hearing by video.
The UK withdrew his passport in 2019 on the basis of national security, and he is eligible for other citizenship as he is of Bangladeshi descent. It said that Begum would live under controls set by Home Secretary Priti Patel, were she to return.
'Stripping someone's citizenship without due process sets a risky precedent, ' rights organisation Liberty said.
Bangladesh has said it will not allow Begum entry and that she has no rights to the country's citizenship.
Ms Begum, and Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase, then 16 and 15 respectively, boarded a flight from Gatwick Airport to Istanbul, Turkey, on February 17 2015, before making their way to Raqqa in Syria.
Begum claims she married a Dutch convert soon after arriving in Daesh-held territory.
After the disintegration of the terror group, the former Bethnal Green Academy pupil was found in a northern Syrian refugee camp in February 2019, with other former IS brides and their children. She was nine months pregnant.
She had already lost two children and the third died shortly after being born.
