Shamima Begum

No, she does not have, nor has she ever had, Syrian citizenship. At the time she was stripped of her British citizenship she also had Bangladeshi citizenship. However, that lapsed on her 21st birthday. She is now stateless. As the Court of Appeal said, it would have been unlawful to remove her British citizenship after her 21st birthday. However, as the decision was taken when she was 19 it was lawful.

The result was she cannot return. The court found she has no right to return here.

There you go. I agree with the court.

And now stateless....

She's not. She had dual British and Syrian citizenship. As a result of the UK Govt's action she is now simply a Syrian citizen. That's one of the main reasons her appeals fail, as I understand it.

The only question for the court was was it technically legal for the gov to remove her citizenship . The court process wasn’t about questions of whether she was “a terrorist” or a victim , whether she had actually committed any crimes she was responsible for etc.

There is more to it than expressed on this thread. There have been numerous court cases and she lost based on legal arguments.

It's sickening that even a penny of public money has been spent on her.

Yes there are courts and millions has been spent on her fighting in court to return and she lost. Back and forward to court making her lawyers even more wealthy.

Enough money has been spent in court on this terrorist sympathiser.

I do agree it seems harsh given what info we have but I wonder if perhaps there is more to it which isn’t able to be reported by or isn’t even known to the media because of national security.

So let her come back to the State who is rightly responsible for her and stand trial according to the appropriate rules and procedures of justice that we all accept and live under.

It's over. She is done. Finished. And will never set foot on UK soil again.

Good.

yes, and as I said these were just words and there’s a huge context to them. They should not be used to sentence her for life in the court of public opinion. This journalist behaved irresponsibly (not to mention he was also asking leading questions).

There’s a reason we have proper court procedures for these things. Rules of how evidence (including an accused own words) can be used. Rules of how interviews can take place and the context for them- how they can be used in court - what can be put to the jury etc etc.

So let her come back to the State who is rightly responsible for her and stand trial according to the appropriate rules and procedures of justice that we all accept and live under.

She lost British citizenship at 19 when she still legally had Bangladesh citizenship. Bangladesh citizenship was lost at age 21. So she wasn't stateless when she lost British citizenship.

What a strange comment. Why would she be living with anyone?
Anyway we think she should be brought back and tried. No to live with random strangers from the internet

More of her lovely chat

"She said she had been partly inspired to join IS by videos of fighters beheading hostages and also of "the good life" under the group."

When asked about Manchester arena she said 'that IS considered it justified as retaliation for the coalition bombing of IS-held areas'

How about rape, enslavement and murder of Yasidi women, she said well 'Shia do the same'.

@Tandora

You may call her a “terrorist”, but actually she’s a human.

All terrorists are human. What's your point?

I agree with previous posters that if she doesn't hold Bangladeshi citizenship, then the UK is making her stateless and should not be doing so.

On a more general point, even an academically successful 15yo girl still has teenage hormones and a need for external validation. ISIS promised her a husband, an exciting one, a freedom fighter, a kind of extremist equivalent of dating the captain of the football team. That's how she got radicalised, because there was something in it for her. She was naive, she was probably sexually driven, and the idea that she is so dangerous that she can't be controlled in a country that until recently allowed Anjem Choudhary to be at liberty is ridiculous.

This is a populist decision and the law courts shouldn't be acting on that basis.

@Tandora I don't know what she felt. I do know what she said, as per her interviews.

I think the lawyers and courts were correct. It's been appealed and constantly fought against at an exorbitant cost. She lost again. There are more causes that I'd rather support that a terrorist sympathiser, who clearly states she was ok with beheadings etc etc

You have no idea what she “felt”. was a child who was brainwashed then traumatised. She’d been living this dogma for four years. She was also living in a camp surrounded by people who expressed those beliefs - that was her community and her safety in that context - it was entirely unreasonable for her to be in a state of mind to challenge, speak out , be reflective at that time.

This was a young woman who had literally just given birth, she was intensely vulnerable and in a state of pure survival. She was Just 19 years old. Her two babies had died- she watched them stave to death . she’d be living in conditions of famine and war. she’d suffered three + years of child sexual exploitation and domestic abuse. Of course her affect was flat. You can see in her eyes she is beyond exhausted.

It was quite frankly irresponsible for this white British male journalist to be interviewing her at this time , then taking her words at face value to try her in the court of public opinion and sentence her for life. All they were were words.

Not sure about his hair colour but Jihadi Jack is about as white and middle-class as you can possibly get and he had his citizenship revoked and was tried in the country where he committed his crimes, as tends to happen when you commit crimes abroad.

So why is SB not being tried abroad? There are plenty of posts saying she should come back and face justice here. Is it normal for people who commit crimes abroad to be tried in UK?

"But Shamima Begum does not. She embraced life in IS. She was happy.
She says she married a wonderful man in IS (27-year old Dutchman called Yago Reidijk, now being held in a Kurdish prison)."

She said she loved her husband. She enjoyed living there at first. She liked living under Sharia law. However, IS were mainly defeated and she ended up in a refugee camp. That's when she wanted to return to Britain. Her father lives in Bangladesh still. Millions has been spent on this terrorist sympathiser and lots done in recent years so she will appeal more. She was an adult when she said she watched beheadings and was 'alright with it'.

Imagine your son bringing her home as his girlfriend 😬😬

I think you mean a massive failing by her parents

I wonder how many of those who are saying they feel sorry for her would have her living with them, she made a choice to travel with her three friends herself to that country, no one forced her to go, I feel no ounce of sympathy for her.

In this sky interview she describes how she had seen beheadings and was alright with that. It's Sharia law. She seemed to enjoy living under IS rule until they were defeated. She lost British citizenship when she was 19 and at that time still had Bangladesh citizenship which she had until she was 21.

https://news.sky.com/story/she-sounded-largely-unrepentant-what-happened-when-sky-news-tracked-down-shamima-begum-11640713

Yes I feel sorry for her. You may call her a “terrorist”, but actually she’s a human. A human who is living the consequences of a stupid decision she made to run away, age 15.

She lived life in Isis as a domestic slave. She was imprisoned “at home” and subject to relentless sexual, physical and emotional abuse by a violent adult man. She lost three babies.

Now she is stateless, facing the prospect of living the rest of her life imprisoned in purgatory in a Syrian refugee camp, when so many others in her situation who did the same , have been returned home.

She has been singled out simply because she was made notorious in the media, and the British gov decided to arbitrarily strip her of her citizenship to win political points and pacify the mob.

This is nothing like what I call “sanity”.