Begum will launch appeal against citizenship decision, lawyer warns

Shamima Begum “will immediately initiate an appeal” against a decision that said revoking her British citizenship did not render her stateless, her lawyer has said.

Ms Begum, now 20, was one of three east London schoolgirls who travelled to Syria to join socalled Islamic State in February 2015.

She was found, nine months pregnant, in a Syrian refugee camp in February last year, prompting then-home secretary Sajid Javid to strip her of her British citizenship.

Ms Begum took legal action against the Home Office at both the High Court and the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC), a specialist tribunal which hears challenges to decisions to remove someone’s British citizenship on national security grounds.

Her lawyers argued that the decision was unlawful as it rendered her stateless, and said the move breached the Home Office’s “extraterritorial human rights policy by exposing Ms Begum to a real risk of death or inhuman or degrading treatment”.

But, in a ruling yesterday, the tribunal – led by SIAC president Mrs Justice Elisabeth Laing – found that, at the time Ms Begum’s British citizenship was revoked, she was “a citizen of Bangladesh by descent” and was therefore not rendered stateless.

In a statement, Ms Begum’s solicitor, Daniel Furner of Birnberg Peirce, said his client “will immediately initiate an appeal” against the decision.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: “The government welcomes the judgment of the SIAC.

“It would be inappropriate to comment further while legal proceedings are ongoing.”