The British Supreme Court examines from Monday November 23 the case of Shamima Begum to decide definitively whether this young woman who had joined the jihadist group Islamic State in Syria will be able or not to return to the United Kingdom to contest the deprivation of her nationality.
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Now 21, Shamima Begum went to Syria as a teenager in 2015 with two classmates.
She was married at 15 to a Dutch-born IS supporter, eight years her senior.
British authorities stripped her of her nationality in February 2019, citing security reasons and considering that she was entitled to apply for another passport, being a Briton of Bangladeshi origin.
But Bangladesh had indicated that it had never applied for nationality and refused to accept it.
Engaged in a legal battle, the young woman had obtained a stage victory in mid-July, the British Court of Appeal having considered that returning to the United Kingdom was for her the only
"fair and equitable way"
to challenge the decision of authorities to deprive her of her British nationality.
But the government had obtained two weeks later the authorization to seize the Supreme Court, the judge Eleanor King considering that this file raised
"points of law of general interest"
.
"The government's priority is to maintain our national security
,
"
Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman assured then.
The former Minister of the Interior, Sajid Javid, who had taken the decision to deprive the young woman of her nationality, added that her return
"would create a risk for national security"
.
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Shamima Begum had expressed in February 2019 her desire to return to the United Kingdom, while affirming not to regret her departure for Syria.
This statement shocked British public opinion, marked by a series of attacks in 2017 claimed by IS.
Asked for a documentary of which the British tabloid
The Sun
obtained extracts on Friday, her husband encouraged her from the Kurdish prison where he is locked to
"remain strong"
in his legal battle, to
"build a future for her- even ... and for us ”
.
After fleeing the fighting in the east of the country with him, Shamima Begum found herself in a Syrian refugee camp in February 2019 where she gave birth to a baby, who died a few weeks after her birth.
Her two previous children, born while in Syria, also died.
