The appeal for the case of Shamima Begum, the “bride of Isis” who fled London at the age of 15 with two girls of the same age in 2015 to join the militiamen of the Caliphate, opened today in London before the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) Black in Syria before being captured and ending up in a refugee camp in the area, asking UK authorities to back down on the revocation of her citizenship and allow her to return to England.
Begum’s lawyers, now 23, told the court that the decision taken in 2019 by the then interior minister, Sajid Javid, had been taken on illegal grounds, as he did not consider the fact that the underage girl was a victim of the human trafficking and sexual exploitation by ISIS.
The lawyers also recalled some important details of the affair that emerged last August thanks to an investigation by the BBC: an agent in the Canadian intelligence service illegally allowed the then teenager with her friends (Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase) to enter Syria pass information to Western services.
The agent, Mohammed Al Rasheed, had behaved in the same way with other Britons eager to join the militiamen of the Caliphate, and then reported the information gathered to the Canadian embassy in Jordan. While the Home Office continues to affirm that Begum represents a threat to the national security of the Kingdom, thus confirming the decision taken at the time by Javid. According to the BBC, the hearing of the case before the court should last five days.