come on then
which one of you bleeding hearts sent her the qpr baby wear
Shamima Begum is on legal aid despite being stripped of UK citizenship: Fury as jihadi bride’s legal fees are paid by taxpayers
- Shamima Begum was granted legal aid to fight the removal of her citizenship
- Lawyers were successful in asking for taxpayers' cash on Shamima's behalf
- Taxpayers face legal bill which could run into hundreds of thousands of pounds
By
Rebecca Camber Chief Crime Correspondent For The Daily Mail
Published: 07:09 AEST, 15 April 2019 | Updated: 07:49 AEST, 15 April 2019
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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.
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Jack Shepherd, 31 – who went on the run after killing his date on a speedboat trip
Meat Cleaver murderers
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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 *****phile
*****phile 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...
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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.
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.
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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
...
Sajid Javid shares concerns of Begum radicalising others in UK
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.’