A Labour MP has not ruled out the government allowing Shamima Begum to return to the UK to “face justice” but said he would prefer her to be prosecuted in Syria.
Speaking on GB News, Peter Swallows said: “The Human Rights Committee has been following this so closely because of the genocide that we saw happening in Syria, with Daesh fighters killing over 5,000 Yazidi minorities.
“It is really important that they are held accountable for that, and that’s why this report has called for more action to be done to prosecute for crimes against humanity, for genocide and for war crimes.
“But I do just want to be really clear: these 400 ISIS members who are over here, that happened on the previous government’s watch, and we have seen only about 10% of them being prosecuted for terrorist offences. It isn’t good enough.
“We need to understand why the previous government didn’t act, and it’s right that this government is looking at the findings of this report and will take that action.
“This report looks into that issue [of ISIS fighters from the UK], looked at the power that government does have to cancel citizenship. It rightly reflected that is a very powerful ability that the government has and should only be used in the right circumstances, and there should be scrutiny.
“We also looked at what we can do to prosecute those who have been involved in ISIS overseas. Many jurisdictions have the ability to prosecute when frankly, these terrorists, these perpetrators of genocide aren’t in the UK, and that’s what we should be looking at.
“[Shamima Begum] should face justice, whether that is in Syria, which for me, that is the logical, practical solution. It’s important that we can prosecute these terrorists wherever they are.
“[Returning Begum to the UK] is not the government’s view. That’s not the Prime Minister’s view. But as I say, this report is looking into how we can make sure that we can prosecute those offenders.”
