British court docket upholds determination to strip lady of citizenship after becoming a member of ISIS

• Shamima Begum, who traveled to Syria as a teen to affix the Islamic State group, has misplaced her enchantment in opposition to the British authorities’s determination to revoke her U.Okay. citizenship.
• Begum, now 24, fled London at 15 to marry an IS fighter in Syria and had three youngsters, all of whom died.
• Her British citizenship was withdrawn in 2019, and she or he has been in a Syrian refugee camp since then.

A girl who traveled to Syria as a teen to affix the Islamic State group misplaced her enchantment Friday in opposition to the British authorities’s determination to revoke her U.Okay. citizenship, with judges saying that it wasn’t for them to rule on whether or not it was “harsh” to take action.

Shamima Begum, who’s now 24, was 15 when she and two different ladies fled from London in February 2015 to marry IS fighters in Syria at a time when the group’s on-line recruitment program lured many impressionable younger folks to its self-proclaimed caliphate. Begum married a Dutch man combating for IS and had three youngsters, who all died.

Authorities withdrew her British citizenship quickly after she surfaced in a Syrian refugee camp in 2019, the place she has been ever since. Final yr, Begum misplaced her enchantment in opposition to the choice on the Particular Immigration Appeals Fee, a tribunal which hears challenges to choices to take away somebody’s British citizenship on nationwide safety grounds.

BRITISH WOMAN WHO TRAVELED TO SYRIA TO JOIN ISIS LOSES APPEAL IN FIGHT TO REGAIN HER UK CITIZENSHIP

Her attorneys introduced an extra bid to overturn that call on the Court docket of Enchantment, with Britain’s Residence Workplace opposing the problem.

Shamima Begum, pictured above, traveled to Syria as a teen to affix the Islamic State group. Begum misplaced her enchantment in opposition to the British authorities’s determination to revoke her U.Okay. citizenship. Her attorneys introduced a bid to overturn that call on the Court docket of Enchantment, with Britain’s Residence Workplace opposing the problem. In a ruling on Feb. 23, 2024, three judges dismissed her case. (PA through AP, File)

All three judges dismissed her case.

In relaying the ruling, Chief Justice Sue Carr stated it wasn’t the court docket’s job to resolve whether or not the choice to strip Begum of her British citizenship was “harsh” or whether or not she was the “author of her own misfortune.”

She stated the court docket’s sole activity was to evaluate whether or not the choice to strip Begum of her citizenship was illegal.

“Since it was not, Ms Begum’s appeal is dismissed,” the decide added.

Carr stated any arguments over the results of the unanimous judgment, which might embody a bid to enchantment at Britain’s Supreme Court docket, shall be adjourned for seven days.

Begum’s lawyer indicated {that a} additional problem was on the playing cards.

“I think the only thing we can really say for certainty is that we are going to keep fighting,” Daniel Furner stated outdoors the Royal Courts of Justice.

“I want to say that I’m sorry to Shamima and to her family that after five years of fighting she still hasn’t received justice in a British court and to promise her and promise the government that we are not going to stop fighting until she does get justice and until she is safely back home,” he added.

Begum’s legal team argued that the choice by Britain’s then inside minister Sajid Javid, left her stateless and that she ought to have been handled as a baby trafficking sufferer, not a safety threat.

BRITISH ISIS BRIDE SHAMIMA BEGUM TRIES TO USE HER BABY TO GET BACK INTO UK, CLAIMING HE’S SICK

The British authorities claimed she might search a Bangladeshi passport primarily based on household ties. However Begum’s household argued that she was from the U.Okay. and by no means held a Bangladeshi passport.

Javid stated he welcomed the ruling which “upheld” his determination.

“This is a complex case but home secretaries should have the power to prevent anyone entering our country who is assessed to pose a threat to it,” he stated.

Plenty of campaigners voiced their disappointment after the ruling.

“The power to banish a citizen like this simply shouldn’t exist in the modern world, not least when we’re talking about a person who was seriously exploited as a child,” stated Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty Worldwide U.Okay.’s refugee and migrant rights director.