A court has been told today that removing Shamima Begum’s citizenship after she went to Syria has made her stateless and at risk of being hanged. Her lawyer said Ms Begum, now 20, is in “an incredibly fragile and dangerous” position in a Syrian refugee camp.
After leaving London as a 15-year-old, Ms Begum lived under the rule of the Islamic State group for three years, before being found in February.
It says that she could claim Bangladeshi nationality through her family, but her lawyers told the court that Bangladesh said it will not allow Ms Begum into the country and she would face hanging if she tried to enter secretly.
A four-day preliminary hearing is now taking place at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, a semi-secret court that deals with cases where the UK government wants to keep someone out of the country on national security grounds.
In submissions to the court Begum’s lawyers said she had only professed sympathy for the Islamic State group in media interviews to protect herself and her newborn son who has since died. Her son was famously named after an Islamic Warlord whilst she indicated that the site of decapitated heads in a bin did not phase her.
In February 2015, Ms Begum left Bethnal Green in east London for Syria with two friends. She has also been claiming that she was in fact a rape victim of her husband and would like to be able to return to the UK to plead her case.
The Home Office denies that the decision left her stateless.
Lead Correspondent | David Clews is the Lead Correspondent for UNN, with over 20 years of political/campaigning experience and a wealth of social media and communication skills David gets to the heart of what is really important to the real people of the UK.
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