ISIS terrorists who were stripped of UK citizenship could cost taxpayers £24million
Dozens of applications from Jihadis stuck in Syria could come flooding into the UK legal aid agency following their ruling to grant legal aid to Shamima Begum.
More than 100 of the former British Citizens turned jihadis trapped in Syria could apply, costing the UK up to £24 million in legal aid, reports The Sun.
ISIS bride Shamima Begam, 19, was controversially given public funding to appeal against her revoked British Citizenship last week, setting a precedent that could inspire other Jihadists to apply.
The final figure for Begam’s legal aid to fight the decision to remove her citizenship is expected to top £200,000.
There are approximately 120 former British Citizens who have been stripped of their British status and banned from the UK as suspected jihadists and criminals reports The Sun.
A source told The Sun: ‘It will have been noted Begum has got this money so others will feel it is worth a go. It has set a terrifying legal precedent.’
The decision to grant legal aid for Begam was blasted as ‘disgusting’ and ‘ridiculous’ by MPs.
Lawyers successfully asked for taxpayers’ cash on the 19-year-olds behalf, arguing that Home Secretary Sajid Javid’s decision was unfair on the Islamic State acolyte.
It means taxpayers face a legal bill which could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds to fund the former London school girl’s fight to come back to the UK. She is currently in a refugee camp in Syria.
The decision by the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) sparked fury last Sunday after it also emerged on the day that Begum was alleged to have 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 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.
Source: Daily Mail
