ISIS bride Shamima Begum poses ‘real and serious’ terror threat if she is allowed to return to UK

ISIS bride Shamima Begum’s bid to return to the UK has heard that radical converts coming back ‘pose a clear and serious threat’ to national security.

The 21-year-old’s case is being considered by the Supreme Court after her British Citizenship was revoked by then Home Secretary Savid Javid.

She lived under IS rule for more than three years before she was found, nine months pregnant, in a Syrian refugee camp in February last year.

At the start of today’s hearing Government lawyer Sir James Eadie QC spoke about what could happen if ISIS members returned to the UK, using a threat assessment report.

He said: ‘The fact is the threat is real and serious, despite the age of the individual when they travelled.

‘The assessment is that those who have travelled to align and have aligned pose a clear and serious threat specifically on return.’

He then referenced Begum’s interview with a newspaper back in 2019 and how she said she did not regret going to Syria.

Sir Eadie added: ‘Serious concerns about threats on return underpin the deprivation of citizenship

‘The aim of that measure includes especially making it very difficult for them to return, on the basis of if they do so they pose the sorts of risks you have seen

‘The responsibility of the state is to protect its citizens from the threat of terrorism as best they can.’ 

British Jihadi wife Shamima Begum pictured with her son Jerah (now deceased) in Al Hawl

Begum was one of three schoolgirls from Bethnal Green Academy who went to join ISIS, shortly after Sharmeena Begum, who is no relation, travelled to Syria in December 2014.

Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase, then 16 and 15 respectively, joined Begum on a flight from London to Istanbul before making their way to Syria.

Mr Javid revoked her British citizenship on national security grounds after she was found in the camp.

But in July, the Court of Appeal ruled that ‘the only way in which she can have a fair and effective appeal is to be permitted to come into the United Kingdom to pursue her appeal’.

Lord Justice Flaux – sitting with Lady Justice King and Lord Justice Singh – said: ‘Fairness and justice must, on the facts of this case, outweigh the national security concerns, so that the leave to enter appeals should be allowed.’

Later that month, the Court of Appeal gave permission for both the Home Office and Ms Begum to take their case to the UK’s highest court, and ordered a ‘stay’ on Ms Begum’s return ‘until further order by the Supreme Court’.

At a remote two-day hearing which started this morning, the Supreme Court will consider whether Ms Begum should be allowed to return to the UK to appeal against the deprivation of her British citizenship. 

Begum was one of three girls from Bethnal Green Academy who joined ISIS back in 2014

Begum was one of three girls from Bethnal Green Academy who joined ISIS back in 2014 

Five Supreme Court justices, led by the court’s president Lord Reed, will also consider whether Ms Begum’s appeal should be allowed if she is refused leave to enter the UK. 

Also today, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) will hear the cases of three individuals with British-Bangladeshi heritage whose British citizenship has been revoked on the grounds of national security.

SIAC – a specialist tribunal which hears challenges to decisions to remove someone’s British citizenship on national security grounds – will hear appeals by two women, known only as C3 and C4, who also allegedly travelled to Syria from the UK to join IS.

At the same time, the tribunal will hear an appeal brought by a man referred to only as C7, whose British citizenship was revoked earlier this year after he too allegedly travelled to Syria to join to IS.

All three claim the decision to remove their British citizenship rendered them stateless and was therefore unlawful, which is denied by the Home Office.

In Ms Begum’s case, SIAC originally ruled that she ‘cannot play any meaningful part in her appeal and that, to that extent, the appeal will not be fair and effective’, but said ‘it does not follow that her appeal succeeds’.

However, earlier this year, the Court of Appeal said: ‘It is difficult to conceive of any case where a court or tribunal has said we cannot hold a fair trial, but we are going to go on anyway.’

Ms Begum was one of three schoolgirls from Bethnal Green Academy who left their homes and families to join IS, shortly after Sharmeena Begum, who is no relation, travelled to Syria in December 2014.

Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase, then 16 and 15 respectively, and Ms Begum boarded a flight from Gatwick Airport to Istanbul, Turkey, on February 17 2015, before making their way to Raqqa in Syria.

Ms Begum claims she married Dutch convert Yago Riedijk 10 days after arriving in IS territory, with all three of her school friends also reportedly marrying foreign IS fighters.

She told The Times last February that she left Raqqa in January 2017 with her husband but her children, a one-year-old girl and a three-month-old boy, had both since died.

Her third child died shortly after he was born. 

The case continues.

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