Grainy security pictures of Begum and her companions as they made their way through Gartwick Airport show three British Asian girls, dressed casually in trousers, their hair covered with scarves. Nothing out of the ordinary. They could have been on a school trip or on a weekend break.

Instead, they were making their way to Syria to join Isis – one of the most evil terrorist groups in recent history. Lest we forget, Isis claimed responsibility for the horrific slaughter of 22 people in the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing, when suicide bomber Salman Ramadan Abedi detonated his backpack full of explosives at an Arianna Grande concert. His brother Hashem Abedi was later convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.

By her own admission, Begum knew where she was going. She told the BBC podcast The Shamima Begum Story that she was “relieved” to be leaving behind her family in Bethnal Green and did not expect to return to the UK.

She was on her way to marry an Isis fighter. "People used to say like, pack nice clothes so you can dress nicely for your husband…" she told Josh Baker, the podcast host, reliving her journey from contemporary Britain to the medieval horror of an Isis camp. In an almost farcical aside, she tells Baker that she also packed about 30 Aero mint chocolate bars. "You can find a lot of things in this country [Syria] but you cannot find mint chocolate," she said.

Today, she is detained in another camp in Syria, only this time, she is effectively in a prison for former Isis supporters. She has nothing beyond a few clothes and faces the rest of her life as a stateless person, a citizen of nowhere. She was stripped of her British citizenship in 2019 by the then Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, who dubbed her a national security risk. "If you back terror, there must be consequences," he told parliament in response to a question about her fate.

And earlier this week a special court ruled that Javid’s original decision was correct. The Special Immigration Appeals Commission dismissed Begum’s appeal to come home, despite acknowledging that she had been a victim of child trafficking.

Mr Justice Jay, head of the panel of three judges, said the case had caused them "great concern and difficulty". He added: “The commission concluded that there was a credible suspicion that Ms Begum had been trafficked to Syria. The motive for bringing her to Syria was sexual exploitation to which, as a child, she could not give a valid consent.”

A grainy CCTV image of 15-year-old Shamima Begum going through security at Gatwick airport on her journey to Syria (Picture: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire)

Technically, however, it seems their decision was the right one. The panel was restricted to considering administrative law – whether or not Sajid Javid had followed due process when he made his original decision. It could not use the evidence of Shamima Begum’s marriage to a stranger within ten minutes of meeting him, or her three dead babies by the time she was 19, to influence its judgment. Her fate was likely sealed before the appeal even started.

Many people are happy with the decision, reminding us that in 2019 Begum had tried to justify the Manchester Arena bombing by saying it was “retaliation” by Isis. Labour leader Keir Starmer, who had previously argued that she should be allowed to return home, told the BBC that this week’s decision was the right one. “National security has to come first,” he said.

And Sajid Javid tweeted his support. “I welcome today’s court ruling… This is a complex case but Home Secretaries should have the power to prevent anyone entering our country who is assessed to pose a threat to it.”

But is it justice? Shamima Begum was a child when she left home with a case full of “nice” clothes and chocolate bars. She was a victim of grooming, persuaded by adult men to abandon her studies and her family to travel thousands of miles to a war zone for an arranged marriage with a terrorist.

By stripping her of her birthright – her British citizenship – the government has condemned her to a life sentence without even a trial. Even the USA – hardly a safe haven for terrorists – has allowed all its citizens who travelled to Syria to join IS to return home, according to Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation. Germany, France and Sweden have also let hundreds back home.

There are some who suggest that the decision to strip Shamima Begum of her passport is based, not on her alleged crimes, but the colour of her skin. The former Lib Dem leader, Tim Farron, told the podcast News Agents that the case is a “reminder that not everyone is equal”. “If she was white and called Sharon from Manchester, it wouldn’t even occur to the government to take the passport of somebody ‘obviously’ British,” he said.

No doubt Sajid Javid, whose own family are British Pakistani, would vigorously deny that his original decision had anything to do with Shamima Begum’s heritage, but it was wrong-headed. A political response to a matter of criminal justice.

Surely, now that a court has accepted that she was a child victim of sexual exploitation, the only fair approach would be to extradite her back to the UK, where she could face criminal proceedings if they were deemed necessary? Shamima Begum is as British as any one of us born here. She doesn’t merit special treatment. But she does deserve justice.

Shamima Begum: As a child victim of sexual exploitation, she should be allowed back into the UK – Susan Dalgety