IRA victims’ families furious as Shamima Begum to get legal aid despite them denied cash after 1982 Hyde Park bombing
IRA victims' families were denied legal aid five times
THE families of IRA victims who were denied cash after the 1982 Hyde Park bombing are furious Shamima Begum is set to get legal aid, it has been reported.
They branded it an “outrage” the jihadi bride was in line to receive public funding after they battled for years to get taxpayer help for their legal bills.
The 19-year-old is said to be living in a refugee camp in Syria after all three of her children died.
Judith Jenkins, the widow of Hyde Park bombing victim Jeffrey Young, was fuming that the former East London schoolgirl could get her legal costs covered.
The families of the four soldiers killed in the attack were denied legal aid to sue Hyde Park bombing suspect John Downey.
Jenkins told : “It's outrageous she can have it when people within this country can't get it. She has joined a terrorist organisation and left the country and she gets legal aid.”
Mark Tipper, whose brother Simon was killed as he rode through Hyde Park, said: “If this woman is entitled to legal aid, it stinks.
“This woman left this country and joined a terrorist organisation. Now she wants to come back again and regain her UK citizenship, how come she is entitled to legal aid when we families had to spend years fighting for it?”
'ITS OUTRAGEOUS'
Ministers said the decision to grant Begum the funding is a matter for the Independent Legal Aid Agency (LAA) and they could not intervene.
The relatives who sought a civil action against Downey had their requests rejected five times before the LAA granted them money.
Downey’s trial for the murders ultimately collapsed because of civil servant and police blunders.
Jeremy Corbyn sparked fresh fury by saying the ISIS bride should be allowed to get legal aid from Britain.
Corbyn defended the right for her to access the cash, saying she was entitled to legal representation no matter what she was accused of.
"She is a British national and, therefore, she has that right, like any of us do, to apply for legal aid if she has a problem," he said today during a visit to a kids activity park.
"She has legal rights, just like anybody else does. We cannot and should not judge outside of a court."
'I'D BE DEEPLY UNCOMFORTABLE'
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the fact she could access that cash made him feel "deeply uncomfortable" - and she was old enough to know what she was doing when she went to fight for Isis in Syria when she was 15.
He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "On a personal level, it makes me very uncomfortable because she made a series of choices and she knew the choices she was making, so I think we made decisions about her future based on those choices."
The 19-year-old's citizenship was revoked by the Home Secretary earlier this year after she was found in a refugee camp heavily pregnant.
"There were lots of young European women in the hisba [ISIS morality police]. Some of them were very harsh and the local population became very scared."
The British born schoolgirl left her family in Bethnal Green, east London, age 15 to join the caliphate and lived in the Syrian city of Raqqa where she married a Dutch jihadi.
The pair had three children, all of whom died as infants.
Sajid Javid said it wasn't down to him if she got the cash or not.
He said: "In my understanding, it's not the first time that someone who for national security reasons has had their citizenship deprived ... has received legal aid."
Shamima's lawyer is arguing she was just a girl when she was groomed by the death cult.
Tory MP Philip Davies said of the legal aid: "It’s absolutely disgusting how we are funding this person who is someone who joined an organisation that wants to destroy our way of life and our country.
"How she has been allowed to sponge off taxpayers’ money to get back into a country that she hates is absolutely ridiculous."
The Home Office has said "any decisions to deprive individuals of their citizenship are based on all available evidence and not taken lightly."
The LAA said told The Daily Mail: "We are unable to comment on individual cases."
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