Kochi: A 24-year-old Shamima Begum lost her British citizenship after the country’s Supreme Court rejected her plea to challenge the Government’s decision to repatriate to Bangladesh for her association with ISIS, media reports said.The highest court of the country the other day ruled that Begum could not appeal against an earlier Court of Appeal ruling as the grounds of her case “do not raise an arguable point of law”, the reports said.
The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) had revoked her citizenship last February, 2024.It ruled that national security concerns took precedence. The SIAC held that Begum retained Bangladeshi citizenship through her mother.
In March, Begum lost an initial bid to challenge the removal of her citizenship at the Supreme Court.However, she directly moved the Supreme Court seeking permission to have her case heard. The Supreme Court dismissed her prayer to hear the case.
Begum went to Syria in 2015 when she was 15 years old with two of her friends. She married an Islamic State (IS) fighter and gave birth to three children who died as infants.She was discovered in a detention camp in Syria following which she was stripped off her citizenship in 2019 on national security grounds, the reports said.
Two of her friends were believed to have died in Syria.Presently she is in a camp which is under the control of armed guards in northern Syria. A total of 150 were believed to have lost their British citizenship for traveling to Syria and Iraq to join the IS.
