Many people were extremely pessimistic about the prospects that the Supreme Court, which some believe leans Left, would allow the Jihadi Bride Shamima Begum to return to the UK to fight to get her British citizenship back. The naysayers believed that the rights that Begum claimed to have in Britain would trump the rights of Britons not to have this awful person back on our shores. Thankfully they’ve been proven wrong and the Supreme Court has, in my view, made the correct decision.
Shamima Begum, who left the UK to join with the Islamic terror group ISIS when she was fifteen, was later discovered a few years later in a refugee camp in Syria and claimed to be desperate to come back to the UK. The former Home Secretary Sajid Javid felt that her return was not conducive to the public good and stripped her of her British citizenship. He was able to do that because Begum is a dual UK/Bangladeshi citizen. If she was a full UK citizen then Mr Javid would not have been able to to that under international law that prevents a nation making an individual Stateless. However because she is a dual citizen, it was possible for Begum’s citizenship to be removed.
This is how the Begum decision is being reported in the UK media and in particular by Sky News:
IS bride Shamima Begum should not be allowed to return to the UK to fight a decision to strip her of British citizenship, the Supreme Court has ruled.
The decision comes six years after the then 15-year-old left with friends to join the Islamic State group.
Now aged 21, Begum was one of three schoolgirls from Bethnal Green in east London who travelled to Syria.
Her British citizenship was revoked on national security grounds shortly after she was found, nine months pregnant, in a Syrian refugee camp in February 2019.
This case has made a long and torturous way through the British courts as Begum’s lawyers challenged the former Home Secretary’s right to remove her British citizenship. The government, who clearly do not want her back was defeated at the Appeals Court but made a further appeal to the Supreme Court on the grounds that Begum’s return would ‘increase security risks’ and expose Britons to an ‘increased risk of terrorism’. She now cannot return to the UK to fight the decision in the courts in person which makes it much more likely that she can be kept out of the UK permanently.
Whilst I admit that there were valid arguments that had been made about her age at the time when she left for Syria, reports of her alleged conduct in Syria and her statements that she made several years back when she said that she was unfazed by dustbins full of severed heads, have undermined age related arguments. Begum while being under the age of majority in the UK of 18 at the time she went to Syria, there do not seem to be any valid arguments to show that she was groomed into her departure or her decisions. Maybe if her or her legal team had demonstrated more contrition or shown some evidence that Begum had repented earlier of her involvement with ISIS then maybe the outcome would have been different. But they could not show this and did not have any evidence to show that Begum was anything other than a willing and committed supporter of ISIS.
This is a massive win for not just the Government but also in the fight against Islamic terrorism. This is because had Begum and her lawyers won this case then it would have set a dangerous precedent. That precedent would have allowed others who have been involved with ISIS and similar Islamic terror organisations overseas and who have dual citizenship and come from Britain, to return to the UK and maybe plan, commit or encourage terror attacks in the UK.
At last Begum has been booted. It’s a shame that it took so long but in a civilised society, everyone, even the worst of the worst like Begum should be entitled to due process. Good riddance to the bad rubbish that is Shamima Begum.
I too think the courts have made the right decision. If she had been allowed back then there would be a dangerously increased risk of more terrorists coming to Britain to murder and maim innocents.
It is seriously unfortunate that she was only 15 years old when she left to join this terrible group as no 15 year old knows their own mind but a precedent must be set to avert other children and young people from doing what Begum did.
The correct decision has been made.
It would have been quite possible to make a reasonable argument that Begum was not mentally competent to make her decision to go to Syria due to her age. However her attitudes and statements after she achieved the age of majority undermined this argument. I agree that it is unfortunate that she left when so young and that she could have made other better decisions on what to do with her life, but hopefully this ruling will deter others from following Begum’s path.
I think it is far less of a victory – welcome though it is – than you might think at first sight.
What has been scotched is her defence team’s claim that she must return to the UK to contest the removal of her UK citizenship (anybody note a slight irony here).
We all know that once in the UK she could never be removed for the simple reason that once here there would be no place else to send her – legally at least.
Thus her defence team’s claim can be seen as the cynical ploy it was to get her back into the Country by “the back door”. All that this judgement does is firmly slam that door shut.
Her legal fight is now in limbo: she isn’t allowed into the Country for her appeal and she cannot take part from where she is, thus she cannot have a fair trial “at this moment in time”.
But her right to a fair trial has not been taken away (despite what some Lawyers are saying), it is simply paused.
BUT and it is a BIG BUT: if she can get herself to a place or position where she can take part in her appeal (her “Traitor’s rights” lawyers have access and she can speak to the court via video link), her appeal can and will go ahead.
Thus the way is still open (albeit made harder) for her to undertake an appeal against the removal of her British citizenship and that appeal might well succeed.
So I’m not cheering just yet, it’s not the end of the case by a long road, though the road for begum may be a long and tortuous one she could still end up with her citizenship reinstated and then their would be no way to stop her return.
I agree with you but this is a major victory for the Home Secretary. Yes she can fight the case remotely, possibly with the help of the legions of Left wing lawyers that regularly turn out for the likes of Begum but are nowhere to be found when other, less Islington dinner party fashionable, abuses are apparent. Despite the caveats, this does set her case back a great deal. Even if she eventually does get her citizenship back I wonder what are the prospects of her facing criminal charges for what she has done or for her alignment with ISIS? This is one of the thorny situations and unintended consequences of the prohibition on declaring people stateless. The time and culture when these prohibitions were brought in were very different from today. The memory of the Shoah and the millions who lost their citizenship in various countries merely because they were Jews was raw and there was also a need for the West to show some sympathy and provide some help to those who may have been declared as non citizens by the Soviet bloc.
These laws and treaties were brought in when they were for sound and good reasons, but they have become tools for scoundrels, whether those scoundrels be the likes of Begum or the channel dinghy types who deliberately destroy identification documents so that they cannot be sent back to the country they hail from as it is difficult to prove their origin and the UK must not make people stateless.
It annoys me intensely that rules and regulations brought into protect the innocent by lawyers and politicians now long dead, are being used primarily by either the guilty or those with ill intent to us.
@Jon MC
Spot on. C4 News firmly on her side – no surprise – very clear on “It’s not over yet”
Ending with a mild rebuke on her not wearing her letter-box
Watch
Wouldn’t it be nice if a bullet entered her head or her head fell off?
Hopefully she’ll now be tried where she is by her captors, imprisoned and then deported to Bangladesh. Or possibly deported to Bangladesh and tried there. They really dislike Islamic terrorists there, judging by what I’ve seen of their laws.
I don’t think Begum should be punished any further. Although she has done wrong she is still only young and there are many who have done wrong in their youth.
I feel she is punished enough by not allowing her to come back to the UK and this alone must be a distressing experience for her. I do feel very sorry that a young person has made what they now realise is a mistake but there does need to be an example set or there will be many more ‘mistakes’.
I hope Begum can find a solution to her problems.
I believe that age might have been a factor in mitigation but for two things. The first is that she sought out radicals and radicalised forms of Islam and secondly is the fact that she has not been as repentant as she should really have been. Others who have climbed aboard this bandwagon have distanced themselves from it but Shamima less so. I do take your point that removal of British citizenship is in itself a punishment, but many have the suspicion, suspicions that maybe should be investigated via a trial, is not telling the whole truth about her time with ISIS.
We’ve all made mistakes, especially when we were young, I cringe when thinking back to my life errors, but I never joined a murderous terror group. I was involved in the Left when young but never thought once of joining with the sometimes violent fringes of the Revolutionary Left as even then, even when so naive, I saw this form of politics as wrong. This is the difference with Begum. She chose to join a violent organisation, something that most people would eschew.
I see your point but thinking changes as we grow. When I was in my teens I wanted to join the army. I wanted to be on a front line where all the action is. I felt I had so much energy that I thought nothing of blasting the guts out of what I would see as an enemy. I thank my lucky stars that because of disability I never went down that route. If I had followed what I wanted to do I wouldn’t be able to live with myself now.
I think people have to understand that young people want to follow whatever they feel is right at the time whether this is right or wrong. Begum still has a lot of maturing to do. I am sure that eventually it will dawn on her about what is right, but maybe some of us are just as guilty of wanting to finish off our ‘enemies’ when we should be educated to understand why people who have different views feel the need to fight rather than debate.
It is interesting to note that, when being interviewed or photographed, she is wrapped up in the full Muslim garb, probably in an attempt to gather some form of sympathy in being seemingly trapped in a repressive regime, yet when her appeal is turned down, she reverts to western dress, tight leggings, no head or face covering, decadent western trainers and sunglasses.
Mmm. Seems like someone has a cunning plan to get her back here.
It needs to be very carefully structured if this is the case. Like I said before, if one is seen to have forgiveness then many will be doing it and there will be a open passage for terrorists to use the same method.
@FH
Agree
@F
Strongly disagree
@Penseivat
Yep, clothing change shows her dishonesty continues unabated
Looking back at my youth, I did some naughty things and some fraudulent things, but no vandalism, drugs etc. Never did I attack or murder anyone or be involved in such acts.
Begrum – who was well above age of criminal responsibility – chose the path of evil and renounced her citizenship by joining ISIS. She should suffer her punishment and never return to UK
Disgustingly, Amanda Platel has given her a pussy-pass in today’s DM
Stop Press:
And so it begins
Biden told reporters airstrikes in Syria were meant to ‘send a message’ to Iran
youtube.com/watch?v=uG2I305uJOg
Bit strange when he sucking Iran’s d1ck on Nukes, Yemen etc
I think she and other ISIS supporters should be allowed back – and locked up for life.
Sadly this probably wouldn’t happen so this is the best possible option
@David
Cost to taxpayer would be immense. Full Cost per prisoner is >£250,000 pa
Weekly cost is more than a pensioner receives per year
Better for all they rot in the sh1t hole they voluntarily moved to
Bringing them back to serve sentences would be ruinously expensive. They’ve committed offences overseas so they should serve their sentences there.