Begum was a sex trafficking victim...not a willing bride, lawyers insist
Isis runaway’s fresh fight to return to UK
SHAMIMA Begum was a child victim of trafficking and should not be treated as a willing Jihadi bride, lawyers for the teenage runaway pleaded yesterday.
Miss Begum, who was just 15 when she left London for Syria in 2015, was brainwashed by a ‘determined and effective Islamic State propaganda machine’ and sexually exploited by the terror group when she was married off to an adult recruit, her legal team claimed.
In a fresh appeal against former home secretary Sajid Javid’s decision to revoke Miss Begum’s British citizenship on national security grounds, her lawyers said he acted unlawfully – leaving her ‘effectively an exile for life’.
Now 23, Miss Begum remains in a detention camp in northern Syria and has pleaded to be allowed to return to Britain.
But lawyers for the Home Office told the Special Immigration Appeals Commission that she could still pose a risk to national security. An intelligence officer told the hearing it was ‘inconceivable’ that Miss Begum had not known that IS was a brutal terrorist group when she left London, despite her young age.
The security service officer, identified only as Officer E, said IS had carried out a wave of atrocities and beheadings in the months before Miss Begum and two schoolfriends decided to travel to Syria.
He said she had been an intelligent and articulate 15-yearold who was predicted A and A-star grades in her GCSEs at the Bethnal Green Academy in east London. He told the court: ‘In some respect I do believe she would have known what she was doing and had agency in doing so.’ Even if she was a victim of grooming, trafficking and exploitation, she could still pose a risk to national security, he added.
Lawyers for Miss Begum want Home Secretary Suella Braverman to reconsider the decision to revoke her citizenship.
They argued that the decision was ‘ over- hasty’ after she was discovered in a Syrian refugee camp in 2019. It had not considered ‘ overwhelming’ evidence that she was a victim of trafficking, including the involvement of a Syrian man working for Canadian intelligence at the time, who allegedly helped her and her friends cross the Turkey-Syria border.
Samantha Knights, KC said Miss Begum was persuaded ‘by a determined and effective IS propaganda machine’.
Her companions were Kadiza Sultana, 16, who died in an air raid and Amira Abase, 15, who is still missing.
When Miss Begum was discovered in the refugee camp in 2019, she was nine months pregnant and said she had lost two other children. Her baby later died of pneumonia. Lawyers for the Home Office said the decision to revoke Miss Begum’s citizenship was correct, and said she had told several journalists that she did not regret going to Syria.
Sir James Eadie, KC said security services still believed she posed a risk to the country. The case is set to continue until Friday, although much of the legal argument will be heard in secret due to national security concerns.
If Miss Begum is successful, several other women linked to IS are expected to challenge Home Office decisions to revoke their citizenship.
‘Effectively an exile for life’