IS bride to return to UK to fight for citizenship

In its ruling, the Court of Appeal said that Shamima Begum had been denied a fair hearing because she could not make her case from the camp. She had married Dutch convert Yago Riedijk 10 days after arriving in IS territory, with all of her school friends also reportedly marrying foreign fighters.

London: A UK woman who as a teenager ran away to join the Islamic State group won the right on Thursday to return to Britain to fight for the restoration of her citizenship, which was revoked on national security grounds.

Shamima Begum was one of three east London schoolgirls who travelled to Syria in 2015. She resurfaced at a refugee camp in Syria and told reporters she wanted to return home, but was denied the chance after former home secretary Sajid Javidrevoked her citizenship. He argued that she was Bangladeshi by descent and could go there.

She challenged the decision, arguing she is not the citizen of another country and that Javid's decision left her stateless.

"Ms Begum is not afraid of facing British justice. She welcomes it,'' her lawyer Daniel Furner said in a statement after the ruling. "But the stripping of her citizenship without a chance to clear her name is not justice — it is the opposite."

AP