ISIS girlfriend Shamima Begum, the British woman who fled to Syria to join the terror group in 2015 and quickly married one of her fighters, may return home to appeal the decision to strip her of citizenship, a court ruled on Thursday.
Begum, 20, was 15 when she left with two other schoolgirls from the Bethnal Green Academy in East London to join the terror group.
The UK-born teenager married an ISIS fighter two weeks later and lived in Raqqa, the capital of the self-declared caliphate.
Begum appeared last year in a refugee camp in Syria, where three of her children died. She told reporters that she wanted to go home.
But former interior secretary Sajid Javid stripped her of her citizenship months later, and her domestic intelligence agency considered her a security threat.
She argued that she was from Bangladesh by descent and could go there.
Begum has been challenging that decision ever since, saying she is not a citizen of Bangladesh and that Javid’s decision left her stateless.
Three judges at England’s Court of Appeal unanimously agreed Thursday that she could have a “fair and effective appeal” only if she was allowed to return to Britain.
“Equity and justice must, in the facts of this case, overcome national security concerns,” wrote Judge Julian Flaux in a ruling. “I believe that Ms. Begum’s claim for judicial review of the SIAC (Special Commission on Immigration Appeals) decision … is successful.”
The judges said that if there is sufficient evidence that Begum is a security threat, she could be arrested on her return.
Her attorney, Daniel Furner, said in a statement: “Ms. Begum He is not afraid to face British justice, he welcomes him. But the stripping of his citizenship without an opportunity to clear his name is not justice, quite the opposite. ”
Begum reacted after appearing indifferent to the horrors committed by ISIS.
“When I saw my first severed head in a container it didn’t surprise me at all. It was from a captured fighter captured on the battlefield, an enemy of Islam, ”he said in a previous interview. “I thought only of what I would have done to a Muslim woman if I had had the chance.”
He also said that the 2017 ISIS attack in Manchester that left 22 people dead was justified.
Britain’s Home Office said it was “very disappointed” by the court’s decision.
“We will now request permission to appeal this ruling and maintain its effects pending any appeal,” a spokeswoman said in a statement. “The government’s top priority remains to maintain our national security and protect the public.”
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