ISIS bride Shamima Begum claims she doesn’t hate UK and ‘my only crime was going to Syria’ in fresh plea to come home
ISIS bride Shamima Begum has claimed the only crime she has committed was going to Syria and said she was willing to go on trial in the UK.
The Bethnal Green schoolgirl was 15 years old when she fled the UK in 2015 to join the Islamist terror group and is now living in the al-Roj camp in Syria after she was stripped of her British citizenship.
Shamima Begum claimed the only crime she had committed was going to Syria[/caption] Begum said she expected to go to prison if she was allowed back in the UK[/caption]She also claimed she had been groomed by friends and older men she met online before she went to Syria.
Begum appeared in the interview with Sky News wearing western-style clothing – yoga leggings, a pink sweatshirt and a black baseball cap and not the strict Islamic State outfit.
Addressing the accusations, she had carried out atrocities as part of ISIS she claimed it was “all completely false” saying the only crime she was guilty of was “coming here” to Syria.
She added she expected to go to prison following a trial in the UK.
“I’m willing to fight them in a court of law but I’m not being given a chance,” she said.
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Begum also claimed she had been groomed for “weeks and weeks and maybe even months and months. It wasn’t just a decision I made very quickly, it was a decision I thought about for a while.”
“I didn’t hate Britain, I hated my life really,” she told Sky News. “I felt very constricted, and I felt I couldn’t live the life that I wanted in the UK as a British woman.”
Begum, now 22, also expressed her fear about the rising level of violence in the camp and the number of fires that have broken out recently, fearing her high profile makes her a target for other inmates.
She said: “For a long time it [the camp] wasn’t violent but for some reason it’s become more scary to live here.
“Maybe the women have got tired of waiting for something.”
Begum also revealed that while she misses her family she is not currently speaking to them and admitted she failed them.
“I don’t think they failed me,” she said. “In a way I failed them. When the time is right, I want to reconcile.”
Begum also addressed the issue of her marrying the Dutch ISIS fighter Yago Riedijk, 29, after she had gone to Syria.
While she admitted they were still officially married she said she didn’t sympathise with him or even miss him.
In the camp she has a small group of friends who give her support, with one Dutch prisoner called Hafadda Haddouch, saying Begum often hides in her tent for weeks.
‘THERE IS NO PLAN B’
When asked what she will do if the government refused to change its position and reinstate her citizenship, she simply replied: “There is no Plan B”.
In September this year Good Morning Britain was flooded with complaints after it aired an interview with Begum.
The ITV breakfast show has been hit with 273 complaints to the telly watchdog after airing the exclusive interview
In July 2020, the Court of Appeal ruled that Begum should be permitted to return to the UK in order to fairly contest this decision by instructing lawyers properly.
This ruling was appealed to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom which in February ruled unanimously against her, thus reversing the decision of the Court of Appeal.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid, who as home secretary took the decision to revoke Shamima Begum’s citizenship, said “it was absolutely the right decision to protect the British people”.
Begum said she wanted to reconcile with her family in the UK[/caption]We pay for your stories!
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