ISIS fiancee Shamima Begum – the British woman who fled to Syria to join the terrorist group in 2015 and quickly married one of her fighters – lost her candidacy on Friday to return to the UK to fight for the restoration of citizenship because it represents a security risk.
A unanimous decision by the British Supreme Court overturned a decision by the Court of Appeal last year, which ruled that Begum should be allowed to return so that she could have a fair appeal in her case.
“The right to a fair hearing does not outweigh all other considerations, such as public safety,” said Robert Reed, president of the Supreme Court, Reuters reported.
“If a vital public interest makes it impossible for a case to be heard fairly, the courts normally cannot hear it,” he said, adding that Begum’s appeal must be suspended until it can play an effective role in the case without placing endanger the public.
“This is not a perfect solution, as it is not known how long it can take before it is possible. But there is no perfect solution to a dilemma of the current type, ”he said.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson welcomed the decision, his spokesman said, adding that the government’s priority was “to maintain our national security”.
Begum, 21, born in the United Kingdom, was 15 when she eloped with two other students from the Bethnal Green Academy in East London to join the terrorist group.
She married an ISIS fighter two weeks later and lived in Raqqa, the capital of the self-declared caliphate. In 2019, Begum went to a refugee camp in Syria, where three of his children died.
She told reporters that she wished to return home, but former Interior Secretary Sajid Javid withdrew his citizenship months later, with his domestic intelligence agency considering it a security threat.
He argued that she was from Bangladesh by descent and could go there.
Begum is now in the Al-Roj refugee camp, run by Syrian Kurdish officials, where UN rights experts said this month that conditions were “subhuman”.
ITV News filmed her as she walked through the camp, where she wore sunglasses, a jacket, a T-shirt and leggings. She declined to comment on the take.
Human rights groups said Britain has a duty to bring Begum back and others in similar situations, and to prosecute them for any crimes they may have committed, rather than leaving them abroad.
“Abandoning them in a legal black hole – under conditions similar to those in Guantanamo – is at odds with British values and the interests of justice and security,” Maya Foa, director of the Reprieve campaign group, told Reuters.
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