The dramatic story of the “ISIS girlfriend” who wants to go home to Britain

Terrorist, ISIS girlfriend or victim of sex trafficking? The dramatic story of Shamima Begum, a British teenager who, along with two schoolmates, was recruited at the age of 15, transported by a Canadian double agent to Syria and married to an old Islamic organization fighter, shows the dilemma, since Great Britain deprived him of his nationality.

One of the other two comrades died in the fight against ISIS. The other is missing.

A trial has begun in Britain this week to have him returned to his British nationality, according to the newspaper’s reporter Times, Anthony Lloyd will find her in a camp, controlled by the Kurds, wearing his burqa and defiant. There the last of her three children died and the process of deradicalisation began, which the British government does not want to recognize.

“Shamima Begum, the woman who claims she was trafficked by ISIS for sexual purposes as a studentI knew what I was doing and he had to be aware of the terrorist group’s “uncompromising brutality,” MI5, the British secret service, told a hearing on whether or not to restore his nationality.

Witness E said, “It is inconceivable that an intelligent, articulate and presumably critical individual would not know what it is. In a way, I think he would have known what he was doing.”

His lawyers argue that the “girlfriend” she was “trafficked for sexual exploitation”.

The arguments

Shamima Begum, who has already turned 23, was 15 when she joined ISIS with two schoolmates.

Begum launched a new appeal against the stripping of his British citizenship with his legal team on Monday, backing him he was cynically recruited, treated and taken to Syriabefore marrying an older man, just days after arriving in 2015.

MI5’s assessment is that Begum still poses a serious risk to Britain’s security and that, as an excellent student at her East London school, it was ‘inconceivable’ that she did not know what she was doing.

Testifying to the Special Commission on Immigration Appeals (SIAC), an MI5 official, known only as Witness E, said that “ISIS he had already carried out terrorist attacks and public beheadings, including those of British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning”.

Witness E from MI5 insisted: “In a way, I think he would have known what he was doing.”

Sexually exploited, Begum joined the terrorist group with two schoolmates from Bethnal Green, east London. He initially said he “had no regrets” when Times he discovered this in a refugee camp in Syria in 2019, when the self-proclaimed ISIS caliphate collapsed.

But he has since apologized, taken off his burqadressed as a Westerner, she was transferred to another camp, fearing being attacked by other ISIS women.

Samantha Knights KC, representing Begum, told SIAC that Sajid Javid, then Home Secretary, took ‘too hasty steps’ to strip Begum of her citizenship, less than a week after she was found and following a public backlash against her.

Written arguments presented by Dan Squires KC, leader of Begum’s legal team, stated that the woman was recruited, transported, housed and received in Syria, for the purposes of “sexual exploitation” and “marriage” with a grown man, it was “rousing”.

Anthony Lloyd, the journalist of Times who discovered her, said: “He was following a well-known pattern, whereby ISIS cynically recruited and treated girls, as young as 14, so that they could offer themselves as ‘wives’ to grown men.”

married without consent

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Started was unable to give consent when “married” with Iago Reidijk, a much older Dutch citizen, ten days after her arrival in Syria. It is alleged that the Interior Ministry did not adequately consider his situation. While MI5 assessed that her trip was voluntary, its legal team said she was being assisted by a Canadian double agent, who helped facilitate travel to Syria.

Follows claims of a cover-up by British authorities, later Times revealed in August that the Metropolitan Police allegedly knew a human trafficker, working for Canadian intelligence, was responsible for helping Begum and his friends and did nothing to stop him.

Begum’s legal team said it was “unclear whether the UK authorities were aware of his activities. If they were, action could have been taken when the three teenagers were reported missing,” they said.

The Home Office argues that it was right to block Begum because he remains a security threat.

Sir James Eadie KC, speaking on behalf of Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, said “female members of ISIS are likely to be radicalized and have undergone military training”. He said that while one of his friends wanted to go home in November 2015, police believed Begum did not share that wish and “continued to support” ISIS after it arrived on its turf.

lost in court

His case came to the High Court last year when he argued – unsuccessfully – that he would be allowed to enter Britain on appeal. The hearing is expected to last another four days.

The result has been a lengthy legal process as Begum struggles to get home. His initial case, which he should have been allowed to return to Britain to fight the stripping of his citizenship, was dismissed last year by the High Court, which held that safety concerns trumped his right to a fair and effective remedy.

Begum faces an uncertain future no matter what the court decides. Today Begum remains in the closed al-Roj camp in Syria, under Kurdish control.

This week’s hearing will go behind closed doors to hear evidence about the alleged risk it poses to Britain’s security.

However, even if Begum regains her citizenship, that doesn’t mean she will be repatriated immediately. She has no travel documents. In any case, the Kurdish forces running her camps are likely to keep her there. The British have no interest in repatriating her.

missed opportunities

The police and her British school missed opportunities to prevent Shamima from traveling to Syria and joining ISIS and should have arrested her, according to her lawyers.

There were no doubts about that missing “key indicators” Begum and her two schoolmates were at risk of being trafficked, Begum’s lawyers said at an appeal hearing against her loss of citizenship.

“The police didn’t control the girls’ use of social networks. MI5 did not control the interaction between the girls and the ISIS recruiters.”they said.

There were also questions about whether precautionary measures should be taken to alert police at London airports of the risk of their travel to Turkey, on a “known traffic path”.

Begum’s friend and schoolmate Sharmeena Begum, also 15, traveled to ISIS-controlled territory in Syria on December 5, 2014.

Shamima and her two schoolmates, Khadiza Sultana and Amira Abase, left Britain two months later on February 17, 2015, traveling via Turkey to Syria. One is dead and the whereabouts or status of the other is unknown.

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