Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

UK’s terrorism adviser says Shamima Begum should be allowed to return

UK’s terrorism adviser says Shamima Begum should be allowed to return

AN INDEPENDENT reviewer of terrorism legislation has advocated allowing Shamima Begum to return to the UK, arguing that not doing so means Britain will be out of step with other western nations.

Begum who travelled to Syria from London in 2015 to join Daesh was stripped of her British citizenship in 2019 on national security grounds.

On Wednesday (22), the Special Immigration Appeals Commission dismissed her latest appeal against the government’s decision.

Begum, 23, is currently held in the al-Roj detention camp in north-eastern Syria and her lawyers claimed she was a "child victim of trafficking" - she was aged 15 when left London.

Jonathan Hall KC, who was reappointed in 2022 to scrutinise and report on terrorism legislation, said if she was a terror risk, she continued to remain so despite being in a foreign country.

In his speech at King’s College London, Hall said the “status quo does not eliminate risk” because “plotting in detention may be easier than plotting at home.”

He said Begum’s gender should be taken into consideration while dealing with her case, arguing that “women are far less likely to carry out attacks or any other sort of terrorist offending”.

He cited the UK’s data which showed there 1,004 men were convicted of terrorism in the 20 years to September 2022 compared with 89 women.

Women were less likely to have travelled for fighting and were less likely to have played battlefield roles, he said.

Women “may well have had less autonomy in being able to leave - and now make up a majority of those UK-linked individuals detained,” Hall said.

About 900 people are estimated to have travelled from the UK to Syria and Iraq to join Daesh and the British citizenship of around 150 of them is believed to have been removed.

Begum, now 23, who left her Bethnal Green home with her two school friends, reportedly married a Daesh fighter in Syria with whom she had three children who all died young.

Her case has been the subject of a heated debate in the UK - some people saying she willingly joined a terrorist group and others claiming she was trafficked into the war-torn country as a child.

More For You

Sara Sharif e1692881096452

Sara was discovered dead in her bunkbed on 10 August 2023.

Sara was discovered dead in her bunkbed on 10 August 2023.

'Chatterbox with biggest smile': Headteacher pays tribute to Sara Sharif

SARA SHARIF, a ten-year-old girl who suffered fatal abuse at the hands of her father and stepmother, is being remembered as a cheerful and caring pupil with a love for singing.

Her father, Urfan Sharif, 42, and stepmother, Beinash Batool, 30, were found guilty on 11 December of her murder at their home in Woking, Surrey, on 8 August 2023. Sara’s uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, was convicted of causing or allowing the death of a child.

Keep ReadingShow less
Healthcare workers hold placards as they demonstrate on Westminster Bridge, near to St Thomas' Hospital in London on May 1, 2023. (Photo: Getty Images)
Healthcare workers hold placards as they demonstrate on Westminster Bridge, near to St Thomas' Hospital in London on May 1, 2023. (Photo: Getty Images)

Teachers, nurses warn of strikes over 2.8 per cent pay rise proposal

TEACHERS and nurses may strike after the government recommended a 2.8 per cent pay rise for public sector workers for the next financial year.

Ministers cautioned that higher pay awards would require cuts in Whitehall budgets.

Keep ReadingShow less
A man walks past a mural that says ‘Northern Ireland’, on Sandy Row in Belfast, Northern Ireland, August 11, 2024. (Photo: Reuters)
A man walks past a mural that says ‘Northern Ireland’, on Sandy Row in Belfast, Northern Ireland, August 11, 2024. (Photo: Reuters)

Northern Ireland approves extension of post-Brexit trade rules

NORTHERN Ireland’s devolved government has voted to continue implementing post-Brexit trading arrangements under the Windsor Framework, a deal signed between London and the European Union in February 2023.

The vote in the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont extended the arrangement for four years.

Keep ReadingShow less
'Covid bereavement rates in Scotland highest among Asians'
Ethnic groups were found to be two-and-a-half times more likely to have experienced the loss of a close family member.

'Covid bereavement rates in Scotland highest among Asians'

THE bereavement rates due to Covid in Scotland have been highest among those identifying with ‘Any other’ ethnic group (68 per cent), followed by Indians (44 per cent) and Pakistanis (38 per cent), a new study revealed. This is significantly higher than the national average of around 25 per cent.

Ethnic groups were found to be two-and-a-half times more likely to have experienced the loss of a close family member during the Covid crisis.

Keep ReadingShow less
Harmeet Dhillon gives a benediction at the end of the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,  on July 15, 2024. (Photo: Getty Images)
Harmeet Dhillon gives a benediction at the end of the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 15, 2024. (Photo: Getty Images)

Trump nominates Harmeet Dhillon for top Department of Justice role

US PRESIDENT-ELECT Donald Trump has nominated Indian-American attorney Harmeet K Dhillon as assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Department of Justice.

“I am pleased to nominate Harmeet K Dhillon as assistant attorney general for civil rights at the US Department of Justice,” Trump announced on Monday on Truth Social, his social media platform.

Keep ReadingShow less