UK refuses Shamima Begum’s appeal of citizenship removal
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – UK Supreme Court refused on Wednesday the permission presented by Shamima Begum to appeal the removal of her British citizenship.
Judges at the UK’s highest court said Begum could not appeal the Court of Appeal’s ruling as the grounds of her case “do not raise an arguable point of law.”
The British-born ISIS woman, Shamima Begum, left London in 2015 when she was 15 years old and travelled with two school friends, Amira Abase and Kadiza Sultana, to Syria to join ISIS.
She married an ISIS militant and gave birth to three children, but all of them died as infants.
The British government took away Begum’s citizenship on national security grounds in 2019, shortly after she was found in a detention camp in Syria.
Begum, now 24, argued the decision was unlawful, in part because British officials failed to properly consider whether she was a victim of trafficking, an argument that was rejected by a specialist tribunal in February 2023 and then the Court of Appeal earlier this year, according to Reuters.