Islamic State bride pleads to bring her baby to Britain

Pregnant British ISIS bride Shamima Begum, 19, has already lost two children to illness and malnutrition but has hope for her third.

In this photo taken in 2015, Renu Begum, eldest sister of Shamima Begum, holds a picture of her sister while being interviewed by the media in central London. Picture: Laura Lean/pool/AFP

The pregnant Islamic State (ISIS) bride Shamima Begum has pleaded to be allowed to keep her baby if she returns to Britain.

Ms Begum, 19, who was found by The Times in a Syrian refugee camp four years after leaving London to live under Islamic State, told the newspaper that she expected to be charged with terrorism offences and to be the subject of intense media attention, but was desperate not to be separated from her baby.

“What do you think will happen to my child?” asked Ms Begum, who has lost two children to illness and malnutrition. “Because I don’t want it to be taken away from me, or at least if it is, to be given to my family.”

Ms Begum also spoke of wanting to see her family in Bethnal Green, east London, and of her fears that she might never again see her husband, the Dutch jihadist Yago Riedijk, whom she said she still loved “very much”.

The last time Ms Begum saw her husband was about two weeks ago, she said, when they fled from the village of Baghuz. Riedijk surrendered to a group of fighters allied to the Syrian Democratic Forces, while she was taken to the al-Hawl refugee camp.

The Times can reveal that Riedijk, 26, a convert to Islam who grew up in a middle-class family home in Arnhem, is suspected by police of being involved in a terrorist plot in the Netherlands. He was convicted in his absence last year of membership of a terrorist group.

It is understood that should she make her way back to Britain, Ms Begum will face legal proceedings by social services to safeguard her child.

Tower Hamlets, the London borough in which her parents live, has intervened in similar cases and said on Friday last time that keeping children safe from extremist indoctrination was vital.

The family of Ms Begum said that she had “every expectation to be returned to the UK and dealt with under the British justice system”, adding that her unborn child had the right to grow up as a “total innocent” in “the peace and security” of Britain.

“We, like everyone else, were utterly shocked by what we heard Shamima say in her interview with The Times,” they told ITV News. “But to us, those are the words of a girl who was groomed at the age of 15.”

Tasnime Akunjee, the family’s lawyer, confirmed that he had been instructed to take legal steps to secure her return.

Mr Akunjee said: “It looks as if Mr Javid is trying to oppose that. I don’t believe he has the legal grounds or tools to stopher coming back.”

He said that the family were concerned about conditions in the refugee camp and were urgently seeking to get Ms Begum to a place with appropriate medical resources where she could give birth safely.

Ms Begum acknowledged that her hope to return was controversial. She said: “I knew that coming back to the UK wouldn’t be a quiet thing. It’s uncomfortable. If I ever do go back, it’ll be a long time before the cameras stop and all the questions stop.”

She said she understood that she would face a police investigation and possible terrorism charges. It is understood that an assessment has already been made by Scotland Yard of the strength of the evidence against her.

The British Conservative government’s tough stance on Ms Begum’s case, outlined in a pledge by Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, to use all his powers to block her return, was undermined when Alex Younger, the head of foreign intelligence service MI6, said British citizens “have a right to come to the UK”.

However, speaking in Munich, Mr Younger warned that Britons trying to return from Syria were “potentially very dangerous” and required the deployment of “a significant level of resource to ensure they don’t pose a threat to the public”.

Diane Abbott, the Labour shadow home secretary, said that anyone linked to terrorist groups “should be fully investigated and where appropriate prosecuted” but added: “We are not in favour of making people stateless.”

Neil Basu, the assistant commissioner who is head of counterterrorism policing, said that Ms Begum’s return had been planned for and there would be a full investigation.

He said: “There can be no hope of repatriation without these investigations taking place, and anyone who does return to the UK from conflict zones can, at best, expect to live under stringent limitations setout in the Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures Act.”

Ms Begum left London in February 2015 with two schoolfriends to follow another classmate to Syria. She said that one friend, Kadiza Sultana, had died in an airstrike but the other two, Amira Abase and Sharmeena Begum, had stayed with ISIS in Baghuz.

With Lucy Fisher and David Brown

The Times