Stripping ISIS bride Shamima Begum of her British citizenship is a form of capital punishment that has left her ‘the breathing dead’, Labour peer Lord Griffiths says
- Home Office minister Lord Murray was questioned about Begum in Parliament
Depriving Shamima Begum of her British citizenship is a form of capital punishment that has left her ‘the breathing dead’, the Government was told today.
Home Office minister Lord Murray of Blidworth was questioned about the 23-year-old’s case in Parliament by Labour peer Lord Griffiths of Burry Port.
‘Statelessness is a form of capital punishment in the sense that it deprives somebody of status forever, for the rest of their lives,’ Lord Griffiths said.
‘Is that not just the breathing dead and shouldn’t we be opposed to it on moral grounds, and let circumstances dictate what happen to her if she were brought back?
‘Leaving her where she is is surely inhumane.’
Shamima Begum recently said that losing her appeal to return to the UK was ‘worse than a prison sentence’
Responding, Home Office minister Lord Murray said: ‘Surely the principal interest and the principal duty of Government is to keep the people safe.’
Meanwhile, Tory former chancellor Lord Lamont of Lerwick warned over creating a ‘breeding ground of terrorists tomorrow’ in stripping alleged militants of their citizenship and not bringing them back to the UK to face trial.
He said: ‘If we continue to refuse citizenship and refuse to put on trial alleged UK terrorists here in this country, are we not just passing the buck to other countries?
‘If every country pursues the same policy, are we not just going to build up vast insecure camps full of potential terrorists – the breeding ground of terrorists tomorrow?’
Lord Murray said Ms Begum’s citizenship had been deprived from her by the then secretary of state and this had been upheld by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC).
‘I don’t agree with him that there is a risk of very large camps of people being accrued who had been deprived of their nationality.
Begum’s friend calls her a ‘failed ISIS bride on benefits in Syria – who didn’t even have a suicide vest’
‘In 2019, some 27 people were deprived of their nationality, in 2020 it was 10 and in 2021 it was eight.’
Ms Begum recently described losing her bid to return to the UK as ‘worse than a prison sentence’.
Last month, judges rejected the jihadi bride’s attempt to overturn the decision to revoke her British citizenship and ruled Home Secretary Sajid Javid had acted lawfully to protect national security.
Asked on a BBC podcast for her reaction to the decision, she said: ‘It feels worse than a prison sentence because at least with a prison sentence they’ll be an end. This feels like mental torture.’
Begum said she never expects to come home ‘because ISIS was the worst thing of the 21st century and I was part of it’, adding that she had to ‘face the consequences of my actions’.
Her legal team had claimed she had been a child victim of online grooming and was effectively trafficked into Syria for sexual exploitation.
The Special Immigration Appeals Commission ruled there was ‘credible suspicion’ she and her friends were trafficked and that authorities had missed chances to prevent their radicalisation and departure.
But evidence of grooming and trafficking did not mean she had an ‘absolute entitlement’ to British citizenship, the commission said.
Last week’s episode of BBC podcast The Shamima Begum Story heard from Begum’s former best friend, Sharmeena Begum, whose whereabouts have been unknown since she first fled to Syria in 2014.
Sharmeena – no relation – was the first schoolgirl from Bethnal Green Academy in East London to flee the UK to join ISIS, followed two months later by Shamima and her friends Amira Abase and Kadiza Sultana.
Begum was 15 when she ran away with Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15 – (all pictured at Gatwick airport)
Shamima has previously blamed her older schoolmate for inspiring her to travel to Syria by presenting ISIS as a ‘paradise’ and claiming videos of their atrocities were fake.
But during exchanges with an undercover reporter working for BBC podcast The Shaima Begum Story, Sharmeena dismissed her former friend as ‘just another individual, living off the benefits’.
She said Shamima only went to Syria because ‘she just followed her friends into what became the biggest misery of her life’.
And she dismissed speculation her former friend had worked for Hisbah – the ISIS religious police – and made suicide belts, calling the theories ‘such an insult’.
The ISIS member also branded Shamima a ‘dog’ and said she simply followed her friends to Syria in what became ‘the biggest misery of her life’.
‘They’re making her seem to jihadi when she was nothing. She didn’t even have a suicide vest,’ Sharmeena said.
‘She couldn’t even speak Arabic, so how could she be religious police.
‘The woman could barely speak around people who were European because she was socially awkward.
‘She always stayed in her house, he husband didn’t allow her to go out.’
Confronted by Shamima’s claim that she had persuaded her to join ISIS, she replied: ‘I didn’t force them or send propaganda. I simply told them what I wanted to do…
‘I’m not responsible for anyone. I was just as shocked as the rest of the world when they came.’
Shamima Begum: From straight-A London schoolgirl to stateless jihadi bride
Ms Begum crossed into Syria with the help of a Canadian spy named Mohammed Al Rasheed, according to reports
Shamima Begum was a London schoolgirl until Scotland Yard raised concerns she and two of her fellow pupils had travelled to Syria in February 2015.
The now 23-year-old was just 15 when she travelled to Istanbul in Turkey from Gatwick Airport to join the so-called Islamic State (IS) with her close friends at Bethnal Green Academy – Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15.
Despite her family’s warnings that Syria was a ‘dangerous place’, the then teenager, described as a ‘straight A student’, crossed the border just days later with the help of a Canadian spy named Mohammed Al Rasheed, according to reports.
In a BBC podcast series, she said she was told to ‘pack nice clothes so you can dress nicely for your husband’.
Just ten days after arriving in the city of Raqqa, Ms Begum, who is of Bangladeshi heritage, was married to a Dutchman named Yago Riedijk, who had converted to Islam.
They had three children together, who all later died from malnourishment or disease. They were a one-year-old girl, a three-month-old boy and newborn son.
Ms Begum pictured with a Union Flag cushion in 2020. It was the first time she was seen without her usual black burka
Ms Begum left Raqqa with her husband in January 2017, but they were eventually split up, as she claimed he was arrested for spying and tortured.
She was eventually found nine months pregnant in a refugee camp in Al-Hawl in February 2019 by a Times journalist.
Ms Begum told the reporter it ‘didn’t faze me at all’ when she saw her first ‘severed head’, but would ‘do anything required just to be able to come home’.
But the runaway schoolgirl said she did not regret travelling to IS-controlled Syria, saying she had a ‘good time’.
The former Metropolitan Police commissioner Dame Cressida Dick said Ms Begum could expect to be ‘spoken to’ if she returned to the UK.
In the same month, she was stripped of her British citizenship after announcing her desire to return to the UK with her then unborn third child.
The move was deemed only permissible under international law if it did not leave her stateless.
Since then, the former IS bride has been embroiled in a battle with the British legal system – she lost her latest legal challenge over the decision to deprive her of her British citizenship on Wednesday.
Ms Begum described the initial move to revoke her citizenship as ‘unjust on me and my son’.
Sajid Javid said although he would never leave an individual stateless, his priority was the ‘safety and security’ of the UK.
Kadiza Sultana – who was killed in an airstrike – and Amira Abase, whose whereabouts are unknown
The then home secretary was criticised by Labour after Ms Begum’s son later died – with Diane Abbott describing the situation as ‘callous and inhumane’.
Ms Begum lost her first appeal to return to the UK but successfully challenged the decision at the Court of Appeal.
But the Government submitted a fresh appeal, meaning her return was put on hold pending a Supreme Court battle.
She was dealt a fresh blow when the Supreme Court ruled she could not come back to the UK – leading to her begging the British public for forgiveness.
When she appeared on TV screens in September 2021, she had drastically changed her appearance – wearing a Nike baseball cap, a grey vest, Casio watch and with her fingernails painted pink.
Ms Begum said there was ‘no evidence’ she was a key player in preparing terrorist acts and was prepared to prove her innocence in court.
She denied her Western physical appearance on Good Morning Britain – in stark contrast to the traditional Islamic dress she previously adorned – was a publicity stunt.
In the BBC podcast series released last month, she said she understood public anger towards her, but insisted she is not a ‘bad person’.
She told the podcast she accepted she is viewed ‘as a danger, as a risk’, but blamed her portrayal in the media.
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