A UK-born woman will not be allowed to go back to Britain as per the ruling of the country’s Supreme Court to appeal for her citizenship, owing to her having joined the ISIS terrorist group as a teenager.
The 21-year-old woman, Shamima Begum, traveled from London to Syria when she was 15 to join ISIS along with two schoolmates.
She was stripped of her British citizenship in 2019 due to national security concerns. On Friday, the Supreme Court decided that she won’t be allowed to go back to the UK to appeal her case.
“The right to a fair hearing does not trump all other considerations, such as the safety of the public,” said the president of the Supreme Court, Robert Reed. “If a vital public interest makes it impossible for a case to be fairly heard, then the courts cannot ordinarily hear it.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson approved of the decision. His spokesman said that the government takes “maintaining our national security” as its top priority.
Some human rights groups protested, saying Begum and others with similar situations should be brought back and prosecuted instead of “abandoning” them.
“Abandoning them in a legal black hole—in Guantanamo-like conditions—is out of step with British values and the interests of justice and security,” said the director of legal action NGO Reprieve.
Begum married an ISIS fighter when she arrived in Syria, giving birth to three children, all of whom died as children. She was found in a detention camp in Syria.
She is currently in a Syrian Kurdish-run camp.
Reed said that the solution is not ideal, and that the decision should be paused until she is in a more secure situation to engage in the case without posing a threat to the public.
“That is not a perfect solution, as it is not known how long it may be before that is possible. But there is no perfect solution to a dilemma of the present kind,” said Reed.
“Thousands of people held in the camps are exposed to violence, exploitation, abuse and deprivation in conditions and treatment that may well amount to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment under international law, with no effective remedy at their disposal,” said the UN Human Rights commission, The Hill reported. “An unknown number have already died because of their conditions of detention.”
