Terror bride Shamima Begum not ‘welcome on our streets’ because she was ‘active with Islamic State’, says Ben Wallace
TERROR bride Shamima Begum is not “welcome on our streets” because she was “active with Islamic State”, the Defence Secretary declared yesterday.
Ben Wallace said the Government’s decision to strip Begum of her UK passport — upheld on appeal yesterday — was “based on very real intelligence that showed she was a threat”.
It means Begum, 23, who fled East London as a teenager to join the IS terror group in 2015, must remain in a camp in northern Syria.
Mr Wallace told The Sun: “I never took, and nor did the Home Secretary, any of the decisions lightly to strip people of their citizenship.
“And we did so based on evidence, intelligence, and reasons that were there to protect society.
“I’m pleased the tribunal upheld the ruling.”
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He warned that anyone “active” with IS “would not be welcome back on our streets”.
Yesterday the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) rejected all nine strands of Begum’s bid to return to Britain because she still poses a security risk.
But her lawyers last night vowed to fight on — and boasted there was “no limit” to the challenges they can bring in a legal battle that may cost taxpayers up to £5million.
Victims of IS last night hailed the ruling, which was overwhelmingly backed by a poll of Sun readers.
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Hero Roy Larner — the “Lion of London Bridge” who confronted knife-wielding IS murderers in 2017 — said: “She should rot where she is.
“Shamima Begum knew exactly what she was getting into and probably still supports the nutters like the ones who attacked me.”
Jobless Roy went on: “I was stabbed eight times by Begum’s comrades and nearly died.
“I still suffer from terrible nightmares and PTSD, yet all my appeals for compensation have been ignored.
“But there’s no limit to the amount of public money going to her lawyers to fund her appeals.”
Begum was 15 when she left her Bethnal Green home with two schoolpals to join IS in Syria.
Ten days after arriving, she wed Dutch-born Islamist convert Yago Riedijk.
Begum, who had three kids who all died, is said to have been a Kalashnikov-toting “enforcer” in IS.
It was claimed she stitched bombs into suicide vests and tried to recruit young women.
But she fled to a refugee camp after the collapse of the terror group’s caliphate and has been begging to come home ever since.
Begum was this year accused of faking her “remorse” by film-maker Andrew Drury, who met her in Syria several times.
Quizzed about the 2017 Manchester Arena IS bombing, Begum claimed she did not know children were killed and maimed.
But she said IS considered it justified as retaliation for coalition bombing.
Begum appealed after her citizenship was stripped in 2019 on national security grounds by then-Home Secretary Sajid Javid.
At a hearing last year, her team claimed she was “sex-trafficked”.
However MI5 testified the A-star student must have been aware of IS’s “uncompromising brutality”.
Shamima's rap sheet
- Sewed bombs into terrorists’ suicide vests
- Carried a Kalashnikov assault rifle
- Was an “enforcer” with IS “Morality Police”
- Punished ‘offenders’ who breached Islamist dress codes
- Watched and supported public executions
- Said she was “unfazed” by the sight of victims’ severed heads
- Did not regret her time with Islamic State
- Justified terror killing of innocents as “fair” retaliation
- Justified Manchester Arena horror as “fair” retaliation
- Tried to recruit other young girls to IS
- Was an online cheerleader for IS
- Was lured to join IS by the sight of IS executions online
Opposing the appeal, Sir James Eadie said Britain’s security services “continue to assess that Ms Begum poses a risk to national security”.
The SIAC yesterday ruled Mr Javid’s decision lawful yesterday.
Judge Mr Justice Jay said it was “unable to conclude the Secretary of State erred in any material respect”.
The judgment also revealed MI5 branded Begum’s lengthy media interviews as “self-serving” PR in the run-up to the appeal.
Begum, who now sports western dress, said before yesterday’s ruling “there is no plan B” if she lost.
However one of her lawyers, Daniel Furner, said afterwards the fight is “nowhere near over”.
Experts say her case has already cost taxpayers more than £2million, and could hit £5million if it goes to the European Court of Human Rights.
No 10 said yesterday the Government “will always ensure the safety and security of the UK and will not allow anything to jeopardise this”.
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But Amnesty International’s Steve Valdez-Symonds said: “The Home Secretary shouldn’t be in the business of exiling British citizens by stripping them of citizenship.”
In an online poll, 93 per cent of Sun readers said Begum should be banned from the UK.
SOFT LAW CZAR ROW
By Natasha
BRITAIN’S terror chief sparked fury yesterday after he warned we could create a “new Guantanamo” if we don’t take back terrorists like Shamima Begum back to the UK.
Jonathan Hall insisted the UK can “manage the risk” posed by dangerous former Isis fighters and other extremists languishing abroad - and that it was “unlikely many people who come back will be prosecuted”.
He urged ministers to let her and around 20 other potentially dangerous Brits back into the country, saying other countries will start to do it.
It came as courts threw out the latest appeal for Shamima Begum to return to Britain after she was stripped of her citizenship.
Mr Hall insisted that Brits would have to come back to the country at some point in future and it would be “really, really hard to prove what people did”.
The Independent Reviewer on Terrorism Legislation told LBC “the risk is always going to be there from people, but it’s probably manageable.”
He told the BBC: “I really don’t think the UK would want to find itself in a position where the Belgians for example have brought back all their women and children.
“If nothing else, it would create this sort of awful spectre of Britain’s Guantanamo.
“It would be a propaganda coup for Britain’s enemies.”
He said that with kids growing up in camps “in a way the sooner you do it the better.”
But his words sparked fury last night among MPs.
Tory MP James Daly raged: “What on earth is he talking about?
The reference to Guantanamo is as ridiculous as it is inappropriate.”
