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Government granted permission to appeal against Shamima Begum ruling

The Government is set to ask for permission to appeal against the ruling that Shamima Begum should be allowed to return to the UK to challenge the deprivation of her British citizenship.  - ABC News live
The Government is set to ask for permission to appeal against the ruling that Shamima Begum should be allowed to return to the UK to challenge the deprivation of her British citizenship. - ABC News live

The Government has been granted permission to appeal against the ruling that Shamima Begum should be allowed to return to the UK to challenge the deprivation of her British citizenship.

Ms Begum was one of three east London schoolgirls who travelled to Syria to join the so-called Islamic State group in February 2015.

She lived under IS rule for more than three years before she was found, nine months pregnant, in a Syrian refugee camp in February last year. Shortly after being discovered, the then-home secretary Sajid Javid, revoked her British citizenship on national security grounds.

Ms Begum, now 20, took legal action against the Home Office, claiming the decision was unlawful because it rendered her stateless and exposed her to a real risk of death or inhuman and degrading treatment.

In July 2020, Lord Justice Flaux, Lady Justice King and Lord Justice Singh ruled that Ms Begum should be allowed to return to the UK to pursue her appeal, albeit subject to controls imposed by the Secretary of State.

However, in an application hearing conducted remotely on Friday morning, the Government was granted permission to appeal against the ruling.

Ms Begum was one of three schoolgirls from Bethnal Green Academy who left their homes and families to join IS.

Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase, then 16 and 15 respectively, and Ms Begum boarded a flight from Gatwick Airport to Istanbul, Turkey, on February 17 2015, before making their way to Raqqa in Syria.

Ms Begum claims she married Dutch convert Yago Riedijk 10 days after arriving in IS territory, with all three of her school friends also reportedly marrying foreign IS fighters.

She told The Times last February that she left Raqqa in January 2017 with her husband but her children, a one-year-old girl and a three-month-old boy, had both since died.

Her third child died shortly after he was born.