(ProsperNews.net) – A court in London has heard that a teenager who left the UK to join ISIS in Syria was a victim of trafficking. Shemima Begun traveled from her home in London to what was then ISIS-held territory in 2015 and has not been permitted to re-enter Britain. Begum’s attorney, Samantha Knights, told the Court of Appeal that Sajid Javid, the former Home Secretary who revoked her British citizenship, did not consider whether Begum was a victim of trafficking and, therefore, his decision to bar her from the country was unlawful.
The Home Office is expected to argue in the ongoing legal saga that it is irrelevant whether Begum was manipulated or duped into making the journey; it only matters whether she constitutes a terrorism risk, and the Home Office contends that she does and the ban on return is therefore valid and will remain in place.
The legal appeal follows a ruling by the UK’s Special Immigration Appeals Commission in February that upheld Mr. Javid’s decision to bar Begum from the UK. Mr. Justice Jay delivered the ruling and stated that although it was credible to assume that the teenager was “recruited,” that alone was insufficient to overturn the former Home Secretary’s decision.
Shamima Begum was born in London in 1999 and left in 2015 to join ISIS fighters in Syria. She has been the subject of intense and heated debate in the UK since she announced that she wanted to return in 2019. She told a British reporter that while she did wish to go back to the UK, she did not regret her time with ISIS, with whom she had gained a reputation as a tough enforcer and recruiter of other young women. In 2019, a public poll found that 78% of the British public believed she should be permanently barred.
Soon after she arrived in Syria, Begum married a Dutch-born jihadist and gave birth to three children, all of whom died.
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