The UK Supreme Court has ruled against Shamima Begum, a Londoner who travelled to Syria in 2015 as a 15-year-old teen to support the ISIS campaign to establish an Islamic Caliphate. Begum had travelled with two now-deceased friends.

Begum, (21), was stripped of her British citizenship by the Home Secretary at the time, Sajid Javid, in 2019, but appealed the decision on a number of grounds, and also sought a judicial review.

She is still being held at a camp in Syria by the Syrian Democratic Forces, but wanted to be allowed to return to the UK to pursue her appeal.

Mr Javid had decided in 2019 that her return would be a risk to national security.

Home Office challenge

The Court of Appeal had ruled in her favour last year, but that decision was challenged by the Home Office.

The Supreme Court today (26 February) unanimously decided to dismiss her appeals, as well as her application for a judicial review of the decision.

Lord Reed ruled that the right to a fair hearing did not trump all other considerations, such as the safety of the public.

“If a vital public interest makes it impossible for a case to be fairly heard, then the courts cannot ordinarily hear it,” he said.

'No perfect solution'

“The appropriate response to the problem in the present case is for the deprivation appeal to be stayed until Ms Begum is in a position to play an effective part in it without the safety of the public being compromised,” the judge said.

He acknowledged that this was not a perfect solution, but added that there was “no perfect solution to a dilemma of the present kind”.