The President of the High Court, Lord Robert Reed, said the British Court of Appeal made four mistakes last year when it ruled that Begum should be allowed to return to the UK to carry out her appeal.
Begum was 15 years old when she left the UK in 2015 with two school friends to join ISIS in Syria. She was deprived of her British citizenship on 19 February 2019 by then-Home Secretary Sajid Javid after being discovered in a northern Syrian refugee camp.
According to Reed, the Court of Appeal was wrong in ruling that Begum’s right to a fair trial should take precedence over other competing rights.
“The right to a fair trial does not trump all other considerations such as the safety of the public,” Reed said.
The British Court of Appeal ruled last year that Begum should be given leave to go to the UK for her appeal, otherwise it would not be a fair and effective trial.
Reed added that the Court of Appeal did not give the Home Secretary’s assessment of the requirements to enter the UK ‘the respect it deserves’.
The Supreme Court has also ruled that Begum’s appeal against the revocation of her British citizenship should be ‘postponed’ until she can participate without ‘endangering public safety’.
In his ruling, Reed said Begum is currently being held in a camp in Syria. It’s not a perfect solution because it is not known how long it may take before it is possible, ‘he said.
“There is no perfect solution to a dilemma of the current kind,” Reed added.
The decision to revoke the citizenship of Begum has come under fire from human rights campaigners and legal experts, who claim that the revocation made her stateless and infringed on her right to a fair appeal.