Jihadi bride to lose her UK citizenship
JIHADI bride Shamima Begum is to have her British citizenship revoked by the Home Office, the family’s lawyer has said.
The Islamic State schoolgirl’s family were notified of the decision by a letter, their lawyer Tasnime Akunjee revealed.
In a statement posted on Twitter, he said: “Family are very disappointed with the Home Office’s intention to have an order made depriving Shamima of her citizenship.
“We are considering all legal avenues to challenge this decision.”
Ms Begum, 19, left the UK in 2015 with two other teenagers, and travelled to Syria to join the terrorist group IS.
She resurfaced in a refugee camp in Northern Syria, saying she had lost two children and was heavily- pregnant with a third.
She gave birth to a boy over the weekend and made pleas for forgiveness and to be accepted back into the UK.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick has signalled she could be arrested and investigated if she returns to Britain.
When Ms Begum left the UK, the then chief of counter-terror policing, Sir Mark Rowley, suggested that she might be treated as a victim of
grooming. But on Tuesday Ms Dick said: “We’re a long way down the road since then.”
Police have said she faces arrest if she does travel to Britain.
ITV News reported a letter from the Home Office was received by Ms Begum’s mother yesterday.
It said Home Secretary Sajid Javid had ordered the move and explained it had already been processed.
“Please find enclosed papers that relate to a decision taken by the Home Secretary, to deprive your daughter, Shamima Begum, of her British citizenship,” the letter read.
“In light of the circumstances of your daughter, the notice of the Home Secretary’s decision has been served of file today [February 19], and the order removing her British citizenship has subsequently been made.”
The letter asked the mother to let her daughter know of the decision and to inform her she has a right to appeal.
International law forbids nations from making people stateless by revoking their only citizenship, but it is possible Ms Begum, who is of Bangladeshi heritage, held dual citizenship.
Government guidance from 2017 states that the Home Secretary has the power to order the deprivation if it would be “conducive to the public good”, as long as they are not left without any citizenship.
A Home Office spokesman said he could not discuss individual cases, but added: “We don’t leave people stateless.”
On Monday, in an interview with the BBC, Ms Begum compared the Manchester Arena bombing to military strikes on Isis strongholds, calling the terror attack “retaliation”.
Alex Klis, whose parents were killed in the atrocity,said the teenager should remain in Syria.
She said: “She’s made her bed hasn’t she? I think she should just remain where she is. For starters I don’t think she’s being honest. I think the only reason she would like to come back is because she couldn’t stay where she was.
“She’s admitted herself that she had a good life there. She’s said herself that the only reason she’s wanting to leave there was because it got too dangerous.
“She enjoyed it there. So I think what is the point of coming back?”
There are currently plans to change the law to make travelling to certain terror hotspots a criminal offence, but this would not apply retrospectively to Ms Begum.