On Friday (02.26.2021) the British High Court will decide whether Shamima Begum, known as “friend of ISIS”, who was stripped of her British citizenship for joining ISIS in Syria as a teenager, can return to the country to challenge this decision.
Judges must deliver judgments at approximately 09:45 PM (local time and GMT) in this case, which has become a model for the problem posed by Western countries over how to treat their own citizens who have joined the jihadists.
Begum, now 21, left her home in east London at the age of 15 to travel to Syria with two of her schoolmates in 2015. There she married an ISIS fighter, a Dutch jihadist eight years older than him.
The departure of the three girls shocked the UK six years ago. In 2019, Begum told The Times that she did not regret her travel to Syria and that she was “not at all bothered” seeing a severed head in a trash can.
The UK withdrew his passport in 2019 due to national security reasons and that he was eligible for another citizenship because he is of Bangladeshi origin.
She now wants to return to the UK to apply for British citizenship, and her lawyers say her case should be heard in their presence.
The young woman is currently detained in an ISIS camp run by the Kurds in Syria, her husband is imprisoned in that country and her three children have died.
She argues that the decision to revoke her British nationality was illegal, as it rendered her stateless and put her at risk of death or inhuman and degrading treatment.
(afp)
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