Row over legal aid for IS bride refused British citizenship

0 Shamima Begum was stripped of her British citizenship after entering a Syrian refugee camp Jeremy Corbyn has defended the right of Islamic State (IS) bride Shamima Begum to apply for legal aid after being stripped of her British citizenship.

The Labour leader said that, whatever crimes Ms Begum was accused of, she was entitled to proper legal representation.

His intervention came as Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the idea she could receive taxpayer funding to challenge the decision to remover her citizenship made him “very uncomfortable”.

The Legal Aid Agency has refused to comment on a report that Ms Begum, who left the UK at the age of 15 to marry an IS fighter, has now been granted legal aid.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid took the decision to strip her of her rights after the teenager, now aged 19, turned up at the refugee camp in Syria. However Mr Corbyn said the decision by Mr Javid was “very questionable” and that it was up to the Legal Aid Agency to decide whether she should receive assistance.

“She is a British national and, therefore, she has that right, like any of us do, to apply for legal aid if she has a problem. She has legal rights, just like anybody else does,” he said during a visit to an activity centre near Halifax.

“The whole point of legal aid is that if you’re facing a prosecution then you’re entitled to be represented and that’s a fundamental rule of law, a fundamental point in any democratic society.

“We cannot and should not judge outside of a court.

“A court must make that decision and every person in front of a court, whatever they’re accused of doing, how heinous or bad the crime is, is entitled to that representation.”

However Mr Hunt said Ms Begum “knew the choices she was making” when she left for Syria, although he accepted that people were entitled challenge decisions which the state had made about them.

“On a personal level, it makes me very uncomfortable because she made a series of choices and she knew the choices she was making, so I think we made decisions about her future based on those choices,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

“However, we are a country that believes that people with limited means should have access to the resources of the state if they want to challenge the decisions the state has made about them and, for obvious reasons, those decisions are made independent from politicians.”

Mr Javid said the award of legal aid was not a matter for ministers.