Shamima Begum 'may mount legal bid to conduct appeal hearing from Syrian camp'

Shamima Begum, the Isil bride, could mount a legal attempt to attend her court hearing from a camp in Syria as she continues to fight for her citizenship, ministers fear.

The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the right of Ms Begum, who fled Bethnal Green as a schoolgirl to join the terror group in 2015, to challenge the Government in court did not “trump” public safety.

Extraordinary images later emerged of Ms Begum, apparently captured on Friday by ITV News, walking through the camp where she is being held in western clothes, with her visibly straightened hair freely flowing, rather than concealed beneath a hijab.

She refused to talk to the broadcaster about the outcome of her case.

It came as the highest court in the land delivered a stinging rebuke to the Court of Appeal, which last year cleared the way for Ms Begum to come back to Britain after finding she was denied a “fair and effective appeal”.

The 21-year-old has been waging a legal battle since Sajid Javid revoked her British passport in 2019, when he was Home Secretary, on national security grounds.

MI5 was said to have advised Mr Javid that Ms Begum was “aligned with Isil” and had probably received weapons training, meaning she posed a “real and current threat”.

But Lord Reed, the president of the Supreme Court, said the appeal process should be paused until Ms Begum “is in a position to play an effective part in it without the safety of the public being compromised”.

It means she is effectively condemned to languish in the foeted al-Roj camp under the guard of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who are said to prohibit contact with lawyers.

Government sources believe a legal bid forcing Britain to facilitate a court hearing that Ms Begum can attend remotely from al-Roj is likely to be her only remaining option.

“Essentially her appeal over her citizenship is in limbo until such time as she can appear at a hearing. We think her lawyers will probably try to argue that the Government has to provide the facilities in order to enable such a hearing to happen,” a source said.

“But the reality is that she is in a camp in north east Syria which is extremely dangerous and probably not got great phone reception. How could we facilitate it?”

It is understood Ms Begum’s legal team has yet to decide on what step to take next but they are considering all options and remain committed to her legal efforts.

There is also an outside possibility Ms Begum may take the Supreme Court’s ruling to the European Courts of Human Rights in Strasbourg, according to a source.

The Special Immigration and Appeals Commission (SIAC) in the UK is yet to consider the national security case against Ms Begum, having already ruled her Bangladeshi heritage meant she was not made stateless by the removal of her citizenship.

Ms Begum’s lawyers, Birnberg Peirce, are also understood to have stayed their other cases involving Isil-supporting Britons in the camps for seven days as they consider their options.

“The issue is whether there is any point continuing with these appeals because of those, Shamima had potentially the strongest case,” said a source.

The Supreme Court judgment could prevent up to 100 jihadists in Syrian camps returning to the UK, in a decision that will be welcomed by the security services. The prospect of keeping under surveillance dozens of battle-hardened jihadists was of serious concern for authorities.

There are estimated to be 60 British nationals of all ages in the northern Syrian camp.

Of the 25 adults, it is thought about 20 have had their British citizenship stripped from them because of their links to Isil and have dual nationality so that they are not left stateless by such a move.

The new Joe Biden administration in the US is putting pressure on the UK and other nations to repatriate their citizens from the camps.

Jeffrey DeLaurentis, US ambassador for special political affairs, told the UN last week that the repatriations needed to happen in order to counter the threat from the Islamic State (IS) group.