EX-ISIS bride loses appeal to regain her British citizenship

London, February 22 (PTI) : A Bangladeshi-origin British woman, who fled the UK as a 15-year-old schoolgirl to join the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist network, on Wednesday lost a legal bid before a specialist tribunal to regain her British citizenship and return to the country.

Now aged 23, London-born Shamima Begum had challenged then Home Secretary Sajid Javid’s decision to revoke her British citizenship on national security grounds in 2019 at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC).

Justice Robert Jay ruled that concerns raised by her lawyers over her “sexual exploitation” and breaches of duty by certain state bodies did not trump the home secretary’s legal duty to make a national security decision to strip Begum of her British nationality.