A court heard that Shamima Begum, who fled the United Kingdom for Syria as a teenager to join the Islamic State organization, was a victim of human trafficking for sexual exploitation.
Ms. Begum traveled to Syria in 2015, and in 2019 her citizenship was revoked for reasons of national security.
A five-day immigration hearing will evaluate her latest effort to contest the revocation of her British citizenship.
The Home Office maintains that she remains a threat to national security.
Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC), which can hear national security evidence in secret if required, is hearing the case.
Attorneys for Ms. Begum, who is now 23 years old, told the court that the decision by then-home secretary Sajid Javid to revoke her British citizenship was unconstitutional because it did not assess whether she had been a child victim of human trafficking.
Nearly eight years have passed since she and two other east London schoolgirls – Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15 – fled their homes in London at the age of 15 and ended themselves in a camp in northern Syria under armed guards.
Ms. Begum was brought into Syria by a Canadian intelligence agent at the time. The government of Canada has stated that it will investigate the allegations.
Once in Syria, she wed a Dutch recruit and spent over three years living under IS rule. In 2019, she was discovered by The Times in a Syrian refugee camp, nine months pregnant. Her infant later died of illness, and Ms. Begum stated that she had lost two other children previously.
Ms. Begum stated that she would forever regret joining the Islamic State group (also known as IS, ISIS, and ISIL) and volunteering to help the United Kingdom against terrorism.
Ms. Begum had previously compared the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing, in which 22 people, including young children, were killed, to military strikes against IS strongholds and termed the terror assault “retaliation.
Monday, Ms. Begum’s attorneys argued in court that the evidence that she was a child victim of trafficking is “overwhelming” and that “denying her British citizenship was a disproportionate manner of addressing any supposed national security concern.”
Samantha Knights KC stated, “At the core of this case is a 15-year-old British girl who, together with her companions, was convinced, influenced, and affected by a dedicated and efficient ISIS propaganda machine.”
She added that “inadequate and rushed measures were adopted to permanently strip her of her citizenship within a week of her conversation with a British journalist.”
Attorneys for the Home Office claimed that the decision to revoke Ms. Begum’s citizenship was correct, stating that when she departed IS territory “she did so for protection and not because she had disengaged from the group.”
They told the court that in “several public interviews” before Mr. Javid announced his decision, she displayed “no remorse and that she did not regret” joining a terrorist organization. They also argued that she admitted she was “informed of the nature of the group when she traveled.”
According to a formal assessment conducted by the British intelligence service MI5, anyone who traveled to IS-controlled territory “would have been radicalized and exposed to ISIL’s extremism and violence,” and those who return “may constitute a threat to the national security of the United Kingdom.”
MI5 determined that her “actions before and during her trip to Syria demonstrated determination and dedication to joining ISIL.”
The Home Office further stated that information provided to authorities in November 2015 “suggested that Ms. Begum did not share Ms. Sultana’s wish to return home and continued to support ISIL after she arrived in ISIL territory.”
The anticipated five-day hearing continues.
