Jihadi bride Shamima Begum has been granted legal aid to fight the decision to remove her citizenship, the Mail can reveal today

Jihadi bride Shamima Begum has been granted legal aid to fight the decision to remove her citizenship, the Mail can reveal today.

In a decision blasted as ‘disgusting’ and ‘ridiculous’ by MPs, lawyers have successfully asked for taxpayers’ cash on her behalf, arguing that Home Secretary Sajid Javid’s decision was unfair on the 19-year-old Islamic State acolyte.

It means taxpayers face a legal bill which could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds to fund the former London schoolgirl’s fight to come back to the UK. She is currently in a refugee camp in Syria.

Last night there was fury at the decision by the Legal Aid Agency (LAA), which emerged on the day it was alleged that Begum had stitched suicide bombers into explosive vests. It was also claimed she carried a Kalashnikov rifle and served in a senior role in the IS’s ‘morality police’ as an enforcer of its laws.

The British-born schoolgirl left her family in East London to join IS the age of 15 in February 2015. She lived in the Syrian city of Raqqa and married a Dutch jihadi named Yago Riedijk with whom she had three children, all of whom died as infants.

After being missing for four years, the teenager resurfaced at a refugee camp earlier this year saying she wanted to come home and pleading to be allowed back.

In a dramatic move, Mr Javid ordered that she be stripped of her citizenship ‘in order to protect this country’.

However, the Mail has now learnt that British taxpayers will help pay for her court battle to return, even though Begum has not applied for legal aid herself, nor formally instructed lawyers.

In a decision blasted as ‘disgusting’ and ‘ridiculous’ by MPs, lawyers have successfully asked for taxpayers’ cash on her behalf, arguing that Home Secretary Sajid Javid’s decision was unfair on the 19-year-old Islamic State acolyte

It means taxpayers face a legal bill which could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds to fund the former London schoolgirl’s fight

Although lawyers have not been able to speak to her in the refugee camp, the LAA has apparently accepted that her family can initiate an appeal and apply for funding on her behalf. In an extraordinary twist, two law firms applied for the cash on her behalf, with one claiming it had instructions through a third party, but the LAA agreed to grant the funding only to lawyers instructed by her family.

Begum will not be able to attend the case – which will be decided by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) – because she has been barred from returning to Britain.

IS survivors ‘still plotting attacks’ By Daily Mail reporter Extremists loyal to the all-but-destroyed Islamic State caliphate are still plotting attacks in the West. Documents outlining plans for truck attacks, robberies and new modes of mass-murder atrocities were found on a memory stick dropped by a fighter in Syria this year, The Sunday Times reports. The notes also reveal the decimated group’s desperate thirst for further funding. One document details plans of ‘killing infidel venture capitalists, hacking banks through bank accounts, bank robberies or robberies of places that are pre-studied’. It adds: ‘After any operation of this kind, we will send the money as we procure it.’ According to the newspaper, the message was addressed to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and reveals an individual named Abu Khabab al-Muhajir will run foreign operations. It states he already controls two cells in Germany and one in Russia. The document describes the 2015 Paris attacks as an example of future ‘special operations’. Advertisement

Last night, there was outrage over the decision, particularly from those who had been denied legal aid in other high-profile cases. A relative of one of the four soldiers killed in the Hyde Park bombing said he was ‘disgusted’ by the move.

Mark Tipper, whose brother Trooper Simon Tipper, 19, was killed in the 1982 atrocity, was refused funding to pursue IRA terrorist John Downey in the civil courts, although the decision was later reversed following public outrage.

Mr Tipper said: ‘It’s absolutely disgusting. You have got someone who has turned their back on their country and supports a terrorist group, then wants to come back and what does the Legal Aid Agency do? Gives her money to fund that fight.

‘It’s extraordinary, it’s totally wrong and it just shows how bad the legal aid system is.’

Tasnime Akunjee, a lawyer who has represented Begum’s family since 2015, confirmed that legal aid had been granted after an application was made on March 19. Mr Akunjee launched the appeal against Mr Javid’s decision but he was unable to take formal instruction from Begum after authorities at the al-Roj refugee camp would not let him see her.

He passed the case to renowned human rights solicitor Gareth Peirce, who has represented British clients held outside of the UK such as former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg.

Ordinarily, anyone seeking legal aid has to apply in writing or online, filling out a form supplying evidence of eligibility such as bank statements or pay slips to satisfy the means test. But Mr Akunjee said Miss Peirce had satisfied the authorities that the normal documentation could not be provided.

Iraq puts 900 nationals on trial By Mail Foreign Service Iraq has started trial proceedings for nearly 900 suspected members of the Islamic State terror group caught fleeing jihadi territory in neighbouring Syria. The Iraqis were handed over to Baghdad authorities by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which ousted IS from swathes of eastern Syria. ‘We received the interrogation files of nearly 900 Iraqi Daesh (IS) members coming from Syria,’ a court official said. ‘The specialised terrorism court has begun setting dates for their trial in batches.’ Iraq has already tried thousands of its own nationals arrested on home soil for joining IS – including women – and has sentenced hundreds to death. The country remains in the top five ‘executioner’ nations, according to Amnesty International. The number of death sentences issued by Iraqi courts quadrupled from 65 in 2017 to at least 271 last year. Iraq has also tried hundreds of foreigners, condemning many to life in prison and others to death, although no foreign IS members have yet been executed. Advertisement

He added: ‘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.’

Even though Begum is no longer a British citizen, legal aid rules state that funding should be available if the case is held in a British court and you have no means to pay.

Yesterday, MPs said the ‘ridiculous’ decision demonstrated the need to reform the legal aid system. Tory MP Philip Davies said: ‘It’s absolutely disgusting how we are funding this person who is someone who joined an organisation that wants to destroy our way of life and our country.

‘How she has been allowed to sponge off taxpayers’ money to get back into a country that she hates is absolutely ridiculous.’

Tory MP Tim Loughton, former chairman of the home affairs select committee, said: ‘This shows that the Home Secretary was right to strip her of British citizenship.

‘Playing the victim card when she has clearly been an active and willing participant in the most barbaric terrorist organisation in the world has now been exposed for the lie it was and the UK should have nothing to do with her.’

The Home Office said: ‘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.’

A Legal Aid Agency spokesman said last night: ‘We are unable to comment on individual cases. Anybody applying for legal aid in a Special Immigration Appeal Commission case is subject to strict eligibility tests.’

The villains who got legal aid... and victims denied public cash There has been no shortage of controversy surrounding the legal aid system. Critics say it beggars belief that taxpayers are funding the cases of convicted criminals, foreigners and fugitives – while others, such as distraught families, are denied help... The speedboat killer Most recently, the Legal Aid Agency came under attack after it emerged that Jack Shepherd, 31 – who went on the run after killing his date on a speedboat trip – had been awarded more than £100,000 to mount his defence at trial. He was then handed more from the public purse to appeal his conviction. Justice Secretary David Gauke pledged to investigate the loophole which allowed him to lodge the appeal while at large. Shepherd was finally jailed last week after being extradited from Georgia. Jack Shepherd, 31 – who went on the run after killing his date on a speedboat trip Meat Cleaver murderers Michael Adebolajo Michael Adebolajo, 34, and Michael Adebowale, 28, murdered Fusilier Lee Rigby with meat cleavers in Woolwich, south-east London, in May 2013. The pair, who were jailed for life, received £200,000 in legal aid to fund their defences. But Adebolajo appealed against the conviction. Again he lost, this time at a cost to the taxpayer of £50,000. Notorious hate preacher Anjem Choudary, who has received £140,000 in legal aid, supposedly inspired the two killers. Pop star paedophile Paedophile Gary Glitter was also given more than £21,000 in legal aid to fight child sex charges – despite being wealthy enough to rent a £2million London home and earning £300,000 a year in royalties. Vile grooming gang Members of an Asian grooming gang – who raped, tormented and abused girls as young as 13 – were handed more than £1million to unsuccessfully defend criminal charges and fight deportation to Pakistan. Shabir Ahmed, 65 – the ringleader of the Rochdale child sex gang –was granted £249,707; Abdul Aziz, 44, £195,277; Abdul Rauf, 48, £282,370; Adil Khan, 48, was granted £282,289. But thousands more was also handed to lawyers working to stop the men being sent home. In contrast, scores of others have been denied public money for their legal costs – such as the families of those killed in IRA bombings, and parents desperate to help treat their sick little boy... Notorious hate preacher Anjem Choudary, who has received £140,000 in legal aid Bomb victims’ families Relatives of those killed in the IRA Hyde Park bombing, who applied to the Legal Aid Agency for £317,000 to fund a private prosecution of the chief suspect, John Downey, 65, were also denied cash. Officials said it was ‘not in the public interest’ to fund their case against Downey, who is accused of murdering four soldiers and injuring 31 in the July 1982 blast. The decision was eventually reversed after a public outcry. Desperate parents Parents Chris Gard and Connie Yates were also denied any legal aid in their case against Great Ormond Street Hospital to take sick 11-month-old son Charlie to the US for experimental therapy. Distraught father The family of schoolgirl Molly Russell, 14, who killed herself after viewing disturbing pictures on Instagram, only won the right for funding for lawyers at her upcoming inquest following a U-turn. Molly took her life six days before her 15th birthday in November 2017 after viewing self-harm and suicide material on social media pages. The Russell family believe that the images Molly saw contributed to her state of mind and eventual death – and sought legal aid to ensure that the circumstances around her suicide are thoroughly investigated. Advertisement

She was in Isis morality squad... and stitched jihadis into suicide vests

By Rebecca Camber, Chief Crime Correspondent for the Daily Mail

Shamima Begum was a gun-toting ‘enforcer’ who stitched suicide bombers into explosive vests in Syria, it was claimed yesterday.

The Prime Minister and Home Secretary have been briefed by the intelligence services about claims the Islamic State bride was seen preparing suicide vests for jihadis.

Separately, activists also claimed yesterday that the former Bethnal Green schoolgirl carried a Kalashnikov rifle and served in Islamic State’s ‘morality police’ as an ‘enforcer’ of strict laws. She had tried to recruit other women to join the terror group, they claimed.

Details of her alleged role in the conflict emerged from information gleaned by allied spy agencies –believed to be the CIA and Dutch Military Intelligence – from interrogation of Western IS converts.

If the allegations prove to be true, it would shatter the illusion that Begum is a blameless housewife who did not participate in the terror group’s brutality.

The Prime Minister and Home Secretary (pictured) have been briefed by the intelligence services about claims the Islamic State bride was seen preparing suicide vests for jihadis

Begum’s account of her years with the group, which she joined aged 15, is that she was a devoted housewife focused on raising her children, who have died of malnutrition. Her husband Yago Riedijk, a Dutch fighter, said that Begum just ‘sat in the house’ and that she would pose no danger if allowed back to the UK.

But yesterday an altogether different picture was painted for Theresa May and Sajid Javid.

A senior intelligence source told the Mail on Sunday: ‘She was involved and her former comrades have grassed her. She was literally stitching the vests, stitching them into the vests.’

The intelligence was shared at the highest levels of Government following the row over Mr Javid’s decision to block Begum’s return.

However there are concerns the intelligence may not meet the legal threshold if she were to be put on trial in Britain because of the way it was obtained.

An anti-IS activist group Sound and Picture yesterday claimed Begum was paid between £500 and £1,500 a month to serve in IS’s ‘morality police’, enforcing laws such as women’s dress codes.

It was said Begum likely ordered the imprisonment and lashing of women in Raqqa in her role in the squad, which had British jihadi bride Sally Jones in its ranks. The revelations could complicate her battle to return to the UK.

At the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC), which will decide on her case, judges can sit in secret and hear details of intelligence from security agencies such as MI5 or MI6.

According to Sound and Picture, whose members lived under the terror group’s rule, Begum received ‘military and religious training’ and worked for several months in al-Hisba, a religious enforcement unit.

Founder Aghiad al-Kheder told the Sunday Telegraph: ‘There were lots of European women in the Hisba. Some of them were very harsh and the local population became very scared.’

Yesterday Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said: ‘If true, these allegations suggest... a good reason to suspect she would be a danger to the UK.’

Miss Begum’s father Ahmed Ali said: ‘If she has done anything wrong, she should be brought to England and punished.’