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UK-born Islamic State recruit can return from Syria to challenge citizenship removal


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UK-born Islamic State recruit can return from Syria to challenge citizenship removal

By Guy Faulconbridge and Alistair Smout

 

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FILE PHOTO: Renu Begum, sister of teenage British girl Shamima Begum, holds a photo of her sister as she makes an appeal for her to return home at Scotland Yard, in London, Britain February 22, 2015. REUTERS/Laura Lean/Pool/File Photo

 

LONDON (Reuters) - A British-born woman who went to Syria as a schoolgirl to join Islamic State can return to Britain to challenge the government's removal of her citizenship, judges ruled on Thursday.

 

Shamima Begum, who was born to Bangladeshi parents, left London in 2015 when she was 15 and went to Syria via Turkey with two schoolfriends. In Syria, she married an Islamic State fighter and lived in the capital of the self-declared caliphate.

 

She was discovered in 2019 in a detention camp in Syria, where three of her children died. Britain stripped her of citizenship on security grounds as its domestic intelligence agency considered her a security threat.

 

But three judges from England's Court of Appeal unanimously agreed Begum could have a fair and effective appeal of that decision only if she were permitted to come back to Britain.

 

"Fairness and justice must, on the facts of this case, outweigh the national security concerns," judge Julian Flaux wrote in a ruling. "I consider that Ms Begum’s claim for judicial review of the decision of SIAC (Special Immigration Appeals Commission)... succeeds."

 

The judge said that if Begum, who is now 20, was considered a security threat, and if there was sufficient evidence, she could be arrested on her return to Britain.

 

Begum angered many Britons by appearing unrepentant about seeing severed heads and saying a suicide attack that killed 22 people in the English city of Manchester in 2017 was justified.

 

She had pleaded to be repatriated to rejoin her family in London and said she was not a threat.

 

Britain's interior ministry said the court's decision was "very disappointing" and that it would apply for permission to appeal against it.

 

"The government’s top priority remains maintaining our national security and keeping the public safe," an interior ministry spokeswoman said in a statement.

 

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Alistair Smout, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

 

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-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-07-17
 
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6 minutes ago, vogie said:

Importing terrorists back into our country makes for "law and order"? I would make a wild guess here and suggest that he does like "law and order".

Apparently not, since he is unhappy with the law being upheld.

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1 hour ago, simon43 said:

I read just now that she actually got legal aid to appeal her case at the UK Court of Appeal.  Quite how she managed to get this aid when no longer a British citizen is beyond me......

Because her appeal has been accepted by an English court.

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10 minutes ago, stevenl said:

Apparently not, since he is unhappy with the law being upheld.

I will make another wild guess and suggest that most of our country is againgst this law being upheld, but being pragmatic doesn't fit all I suppose.

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This is not only UK.

 

Similar court rulings are made in several other Western countries.

 

In my country a court even ruled that the government has to pay a huge penalty for every day they fail to repatriate them

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