UK Tribunal Rejects Jihadi ISIS Bride Shamima Begum’s Initial Bid To Regain British Citizenship

Shamima Begum, a UK resident who ran away in 2015 to become an Islamic State (IS) jihadi bride, has lost the first stage of a legal challenge against the decision to revoke her British citizenship, it was reported.

On Friday (7 February), a tribunal, led by Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) President Justice Elisabeth Laing, ruled that the decision to revoke Begum's British citizenship did not render her stateless, reports the Metro newspaper.

Judge Doron Blum, announcing the decision of the tribunal, said that the move did not breach the Home Office's "extraterritorial human rights policy by exposing Begum to a real risk of death or inhuman or degrading treatment".

He added that, while Begum "cannot have an effective appeal in her current circumstances", it "does not follow that her appeal succeeds" on that ground.

Begum, then aged 15, was one of three schoolgirls from Bethnal Green Academy who left their homes and families to join IS, shortly after Sharmeena Begum travelled to Syria in December 2014.

Kadiza Sultana, then 16, and Amira Abase, then 15, and Begum boarded a flight from Gatwick Airport to Istanbul, Turkey, on 17 February 2015, before making their way to Raqqa in Syria.

Sultana was reportedly killed in an air strike in 2016, while Abase and Sharmeena Begum's current whereabouts remain unknown.

Begum has claimed that she married Dutch convert Yago Riedijk 10 days after arriving in IS territory, with all three of her school friends also reportedly marrying foreign fighters.

She later told The Times newspaper last year that she left Raqqa in January 2017 with her husband and her children who later died. Her third child died shortly after he was born.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)