The UK’s Supreme Court has rejected an initial attempt by Shamima Begum to challenge the decision to remove her British citizenship. The 24-year-old had asked the Court of Appeal for permission to take her case to the highest court, but this was denied. The UK government rescinded her citizenship in 2019, on national security grounds, leaving her stateless. Begum left London to travel to Syria and join the Islamic State group in 2015, at the age of 15.
Begum’s lawyers have argued that the Home Office made an unlawful decision in removing her citizenship, claiming that officials failed to properly consider whether she was a possible victim of trafficking. Begum’s parents were of Bangladeshi descent, but she was born in the UK. In 2015, she joined two other east London girls in travelling to Syria to support the IS group. Whilst under IS rule, she married a Dutch member of the group and had three children, all of whom subsequently died.
After IS was vanquished, Begum was found in northern Syria, in a detention camp where she has remained to this day. Her lawyers have said the conditions there have reached a “critical point”, with disease and “near starvation” now commonplace. Begum has admitted to joining a proscribed organisation and to being ashamed of having done so. The fate of one of the friends Begum travelled to Syria with is unknown, whilst the other is thought to have died when a house was destroyed.
Begum was dismissed by three judges at the Court of Appeal earlier this year after she attempted to regain her citizenship. Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr rejected her initial appeal, stating that the decision in her case was not for the court to agree or disagree with, only to assess whether it was lawful or not. Begum now has the option of asking the Supreme Court directly for permission to hear her case
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More