Is Shamima Begum being secretly flown back to the UK? Fact Check
A series of messages spreading on social media assert that “ISIS bride” Shamima Begum has been secretly flown back to the UK “today”. Many variants of the claim also state that she is receiving free legal aid from Cherie Blair.
UNPROVEN
Such messages began picking up traction in early September 2019, in the guise of social media messages, such as the one below.
EXCLUSIVE. You heard it here first. With everyone distracted by Boris it is a good day to bury bad news. Shamima Begum is flying into the UK today. That girl who left to join isis. Secretly been flown in. No press coverage allowed for her safety. Being represented by Cherie Blair. What a joke PLEASE SHARE
The message does not even attempt to proffer anything to back up the claim, and online searches fail to reveal anything from any media outlet or any reputable person or entity making such a claim. Of course, this being the Internet, thousands still took to sharing the message on the assumption that a social media message purporting something without even a mere attempt to source its claim with evidence must be true.
This in turn led to blog posts (that link back to the original unverified social media posts) and more permutations of the message spreading, like the one below.
This girl has been allowed back into this country via the back door and know one knows about it it’s been very hush hush and the media has been banned from covering it earlier i put the post up and Facebook have taken it down, this is the state of this country it’s a disgusting she has been let back in and now the whole family will get protection, yes at the tax payers expenses
oh
and to top it all off Cheri Blair Tony fucking Blair wife is representing her via legal Aid again paid for by the tax payer disgusting 😡🤬
share the hell out of this before they take it down.
While the messages attempt to explain the lack of reporting on Begum’s supposed return by claiming there is a media “reporting ban”, the messages still refuse to even offer an explanation as to how the author of the message came to know about such an event, or how they came to know about the alleged reporting restrictions surrounding it.
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Assertions of a supposed media reporting ban are made even more dubious since some UK outlets – such as The Mirror – have explicitly and voluntarily denied the existence of such bans. (While UK outlets generally respect reporting restrictions imposed by the UK judicial system, it would be unusual to completely deny their existence)
Repeated claims on social media that the press had been banned from reporting on her movements due to the potential unrest her return would cause are also untrue.
Another shadow of doubt cast upon this claim is that the law firm belonging to Cherie Blair (wife of ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair) who are – according to the circulating messages – representing Shamima Begum has denied that they are (or have ever) represented her, as they confirmed to FullFact.org. (We also reached out but are still waiting for a response at time of publication.)
Despite this lack of evidence – or lack of even offering evidence – claims that Shamima Begum is secretly flying back into the UK “today” have been spreading for weeks, and we are unable to locate anything confirming this other than baseless social media posts.
As such we rate the claim unproven.
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