Teh One Who Knocks
04-16-2019, 10:39 AM
Martine Berg Olsen for Metro.co.uk
https://i.imgur.com/EUGjlTs.jpg
Shamima Begum has been granted legal aid in a bid to fight the Home Office’s decision to remove her citizenship.
The Isis bride’s lawyers have reportedly been awarded taxpayers’ money and is preparing to appeal against Home Secretary Sajid Javid’s decision to revoke her citizenship.
Taxpayers face a legal bill which could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds, according to Daily Mail.
This comes after it was revealed that Begum, 19, ‘stitched suicide bombers into vests and carried a rile’ while she was a member of a ‘feared morality police’ in Syria.
Javid said he stripped Begum, who fled to Syria at the age of 15, of her citizenship in ‘order to protect his country’.
Although Begum is no longer a British citizen, legal rules state that funding should be available if the case is held in a British court, the newspapers said.
The money, which was requested by her lawyers, not Begum or her family, will be used to help pay for her court battle to return.
https://i.imgur.com/G0yu99o.jpg
She fled to Syria at the age of 15 (Picture: PA)
The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) has accepted that her lawyers can make requests on her behalf, despite not being able to speak to her at the refugee camp she is staying at in Syria.
Begum herself will not be able to attend the case which will be decided by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, because she has been banned from returning to the UK.
The LAA’s decision has been hit by backlash and Tory MP Philip Davies said giving funding to someone who left the UK to join the extremist group was ‘disgusting’.
Tory MP Tim Loughton accused Begum of ‘playing the victim card’.
The Home Office said they ‘do not comment on individual cases’, but added: ‘Any decisions to deprive individuals of their citizenship are based on all available evidence and not taken lightly.’
LAA also refused to comment on individual cases, but said: ‘Anybody applying for legal aid in a Special Immigration Appeal Commission case is subject to strict eligibility tests.’
A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘In order to protect this country, (the Home Secretary) has the power to deprive someone of their British citizenship where it would not render them stateless.
‘We do not comment on individual cases, but any decisions to deprive individuals of their citizenship are based on all available evidence and not taken lightly.’
The family’s lawyer Tasnime Akunjee confirmed the legal aid and said the case has been passed on to renowned human rights solicitor Gareth Peirce, who has represented former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg.
Akunjee told Daily Mail: ‘I represent the family who initially brought the case on behalf of Shamima Begum, but the family are not entitled to legal aid – the legal aid is for Shamima Begum alone.’
Begum disappeared in 2015 and resurfaced at the al-Hawl refugee camp in February this year.
Begum was one of three schoolgirls in London who fled to Syria. The two others are feared dead.
She was then in the late stages of her third pregnancy, having already lost two children to malnutrition.
The last territorial stronghold of the regime crumbled last month and dozens of UK citizens are now stuck in Syria.
https://i.imgur.com/EUGjlTs.jpg
Shamima Begum has been granted legal aid in a bid to fight the Home Office’s decision to remove her citizenship.
The Isis bride’s lawyers have reportedly been awarded taxpayers’ money and is preparing to appeal against Home Secretary Sajid Javid’s decision to revoke her citizenship.
Taxpayers face a legal bill which could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds, according to Daily Mail.
This comes after it was revealed that Begum, 19, ‘stitched suicide bombers into vests and carried a rile’ while she was a member of a ‘feared morality police’ in Syria.
Javid said he stripped Begum, who fled to Syria at the age of 15, of her citizenship in ‘order to protect his country’.
Although Begum is no longer a British citizen, legal rules state that funding should be available if the case is held in a British court, the newspapers said.
The money, which was requested by her lawyers, not Begum or her family, will be used to help pay for her court battle to return.
https://i.imgur.com/G0yu99o.jpg
She fled to Syria at the age of 15 (Picture: PA)
The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) has accepted that her lawyers can make requests on her behalf, despite not being able to speak to her at the refugee camp she is staying at in Syria.
Begum herself will not be able to attend the case which will be decided by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, because she has been banned from returning to the UK.
The LAA’s decision has been hit by backlash and Tory MP Philip Davies said giving funding to someone who left the UK to join the extremist group was ‘disgusting’.
Tory MP Tim Loughton accused Begum of ‘playing the victim card’.
The Home Office said they ‘do not comment on individual cases’, but added: ‘Any decisions to deprive individuals of their citizenship are based on all available evidence and not taken lightly.’
LAA also refused to comment on individual cases, but said: ‘Anybody applying for legal aid in a Special Immigration Appeal Commission case is subject to strict eligibility tests.’
A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘In order to protect this country, (the Home Secretary) has the power to deprive someone of their British citizenship where it would not render them stateless.
‘We do not comment on individual cases, but any decisions to deprive individuals of their citizenship are based on all available evidence and not taken lightly.’
The family’s lawyer Tasnime Akunjee confirmed the legal aid and said the case has been passed on to renowned human rights solicitor Gareth Peirce, who has represented former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg.
Akunjee told Daily Mail: ‘I represent the family who initially brought the case on behalf of Shamima Begum, but the family are not entitled to legal aid – the legal aid is for Shamima Begum alone.’
Begum disappeared in 2015 and resurfaced at the al-Hawl refugee camp in February this year.
Begum was one of three schoolgirls in London who fled to Syria. The two others are feared dead.
She was then in the late stages of her third pregnancy, having already lost two children to malnutrition.
The last territorial stronghold of the regime crumbled last month and dozens of UK citizens are now stuck in Syria.