Shamima Begum returning to UK from Syria to fight for her citizenship ‘would create significant national security risks’
JIHADI bride Shamima Begum would pose a "real and serious" threat if she was let back into Britain, the Supreme Court heard yesterday.
Lawyers for Begum, now 21, say she must be allowed to return to fight a decision to strip her of UK citizenship.
But setting out the Home Office's case yesterday, Sir James Eadie QC said the public's safety would be put at "serious risk" if that happened.
Amid fears other IS brides could take advantage of a Begum victory, he warned: "If you force the Secretary of State to facilitate a return to the UK or if you allow the substantive appeal, the effect is to create potentially very serious national security concerns.
"Sir James told the panel of five judges they should overturn an earlier appeal court ruling in July which backed Begum.
He said those who joined IS had been "radicalised and desensitised".
'RADICALISED' & 'DESENSITISED'
And he pointed to a Times interview where Begum told how she had no regrets about joining the death cult and was not fazed by seeing discarded heads in bins.
Sir James warned: "Those who have travelled to align and then have aligned (with IS) pose a clear and serious threat specifically on return.”
He added: “The threat would increase significantly if they were to return to the UK.”
Begum was just 15 when she fled school in 2015 to join the Islamic death cult.
She later wed an IS fighter and had three children, who have all since died.
But after the evil regime collapsed, Begum ended up in a refugee camp where The Times interviewed her.
She told how she had sewn IS suicide bombers into their suicide vests.
And soon after then Home Secretary Sajid Javid stripped her of her UK citizenship to stop her from ever coming back.
Sir James told the court: “A serious concern about threats on return underpin the deprivation of citizenship when someone such as this is outside the jurisdiction.
“The aim of that measure includes specifically making it difficult for someone to return on the basis that, if they do so, they will pose the sorts of threats that you have seen.
DUTY TO PROTECT UK
“A national security threat means a threat of the most serious kind to the public.”
The QC said it was the state’s core duty to protect its citizens.
And he added: “That aim is defeated and the public is therefore placed at serious risk if return is allowed.”
Begum's supporters claim the court should take into account her young age when she left Bethnal Green, East London, with two school pals in February 2015.
But Sir James said: “There have been no findings or allegations of trafficking or grooming made.
“National security concerns are very, very real, very serious, and not undermined a jot by the fact she went when she was very young.”
Begum's lawyers say she cannot pursue "a fair and effective appeal" while living in a refugee camp.
Yet the court heard she had still smanaged to instruct her legal team using a mobile phone.
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Lord Pannick QC, for Begum, told the court officials had not alleged Begum fought, trained or took part in terror activities or had any role in IS.
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Liberty has also intervened in the case, with its lawyers arguing leaving Begum stateless exposes her to "rendition or targeted drone strikes".
The two-day hearing continues. The court is expected to reserve its judgment.
