ISIS Bride Shamima Begum ‘Faces Torture or Hanging,’ Claim Her Lawyers

Shamima Begum being interviewed by Sky News in northern Syria on Feb. 17, 2019. Reuters

The lawyer of ISIS bride Shamima Begum claimed that she is at risk of hanging or torture if her U.K. citizenship is revoked, it was reported.

Shamima Begum, 20, is in “an incredibly fragile and dangerous” situation inside a Syrian refugee camp, The Week UK reported.

Begum wanted to return to London but is now “stateless” after a former home secretary removed her citizenship at a refugee camp, said an immigration court, as the Daily Mail reported.

Her lawyers added that she was left with no safe option, telling the Immigration Appeals Commission in London that former Home Secretary Sajid Javid’s actions were not lawful.

The lawyers said she is facing death threats from ISIS agents inside of Syria after she recanted her support for the terrorist organization. As such, she can now face torture and execution in other countries.

(L) - Shamima Begum being interviewed by Sky News in northern Syria on Feb. 17, 2019. (R) - Begum’s father Ahmed Ali speaking to reporters in Sunamganu, Bangladesh, on March 5, 2019. Reuters; AP Photo

But Home Office lawyers said she put herself at risk by traveling from the United Kingdom to Syria to join ISIS.

They then argued that Begum, who left for Syria at age 15, is entitled to citizenship in Bangladesh. The Mail reported that officials in the South Asian country denied this claim and also threatened to execute her via hanging.

“The Bangladeshi government has made clear it will not allow the appellant to go to that country. It has said that if she arrived covertly she would be hanged,” her lawyers also said, as reported by The Week.

Kadiza Sultana, left, Shamima Begum, center and Amira Abase going through security at Gatwick airport on Feb. 23, 2015. Metropolitan Police via AP

Meanwhile, as Turkey launched an operation in northern Syria earlier in October, Begum expressed fears about it.

“I am scared, really scared,” she said, according to the Evening Standard. “I am afraid I could die here. The camp is very tense. We don’t know what is going on. When the Turkish offensive began many of the women here waited to take advantage of it to hurt those who had left ISIS.”

Her comments came after reports of ISIS members escaping camps in northern Syria.

Last month, Priti Patel, Britain’s secretary of state for the Home Department, told The Sun on Sept. 29 that there was “no way” that Begum would be allowed back.

“Our job is to keep our country safe,” Patel said. “We don’t need people who have done harm and left our country to be part of a death cult and to perpetrate that ideology.

“We cannot have people who would do us harm allowed to enter our country—and that includes this woman,” she remarked. “Everything I see in terms of security and intelligence, I am simply not willing to allow anybody who has been an active supporter or campaigner for ISIS in this country.”

Patel added that it is “quite reassuring” that Begum is still in Syria.