LONDON (Reuters) – The UK Supreme Court will examine the case of a British-born woman who went to Syria as a schoolgirl to join Islamic State, after the government appealed against a court decision to allow her to return to Britain to fight for her citizenship.
Shamima Begum, who was born to Bangladeshi parents, left London in 2015 when she was 15 and went to Syria via Turkey with two schoolfriends. In Syria, she married an Islamic State fighter and lived in the capital of the violent jihadist group’s self-declared caliphate.
She was discovered in 2019 in a detention camp in Syria, where three of her children died. Britain stripped her of her citizenship, saying she was a security threat.
The Court of Appeal in London ruled on July 16 that Begum should be allowed to return to Britain to challenge that decision, a ruling the government described as “very disappointing”.
“We are pleased that we have been able to secure permission to have the Supreme Court consider our appeal,” the Home Office, or interior ministry, said on Friday. It did not say when any hearing would take place.
(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
