UK top court says runaway schoolgirl who joined IS cannot return to Britain

26 February 2021 - 13:21 By Reuters
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Shamima Begum, who is being held in a detention camp in Syria, was stripped her of her British citizenship. Stock image.
Shamima Begum, who is being held in a detention camp in Syria, was stripped her of her British citizenship. Stock image.
Image: 123RF/Evgenyi Lastochkin

A British-born woman who went to Syria as a schoolgirl to join Islamic State should not be allowed to return to Britain to challenge the government taking away her citizenship because she poses a security risk, the UK's supreme court ruled on Friday.

Shamima Begum left London in 2015 when she was 15 and went to Syria via Turkey with two schoolfriends where she married an IS fighter.

Begum, 21, who is being held in a detention camp in Syria, was stripped her of her British citizenship in 2019 but the court of appeal previously agreed she could only have a fair appeal of that decision if she were allowed back to Britain. 


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