Shamima Begum, a jihadi bride, is concerned that she will be prosecuted in Syria for her support for the Islamic State, and that she may face the death penalty if found guilty.
The 22-year-old expressed terror at the prospect of being hauled before a court in northern Syria in an interview with The Mail on Sunday, saying: ‘No, no, I don’t want that, it can’t happen.’ I don’t want to go to Syria to stand trial.’
Male Syrian and Iraqi IS fighters being arrested by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Force have already been put on trial, with reports on the ground claiming that some have been executed and others have been sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
Women’s trials are likely to begin this summer, according to detainees at two camps for accused members of the terrorist group, including Begum.
Begum protested her innocence from the Al-Roj camp, where she has been held since 2019, claiming she was a “angel” who had been brainwashed and subsequently sex-trafficked by ISIS.
Her testimony, however, contrasts sharply with her previous statements endorsing ISIS, including allegations that she was not just a dedicated member of the group’s harsh Al-Khansa female’morality police,’ but helped sewed ISIS bombers into suicide vests.
Begum was 15 when she and two East London school mates, Amira Abase and Kadiza Sultana, escaped the UK in 2015, and she says she is still’shocked by how simple it was.’
Last week, she spoke about how Sharmeena Begum (no relation), a British teenager who joined ISIS in December 2014, had inspired the group.
‘She was one of my closest companions. I don’t think we would have been radicalized if she hadn’t been radicalized,’ she claimed. ‘It was a group thing, and it was done online.’ We ate each other’s leftovers.
‘At that age, individuals attempt to discover themselves in a variety of ways, and some people discover themselves through religion, which is what happened to us – but then we got too involved.’
Begum wound herself in Raqqa, the self-proclaimed caliphate’s capital, but she claims she was ‘100%’ trafficked as a bride for the group’s members. She gave an infamous interview after being kidnapped near the Syrian town of Baghuz as ISIS was beaten, in which she bemoaned being “weak” for fleeing the group’s last stand.
She reportedly said that seeing a’severed head in a bin didn’t bother her because it belonged to a captured fighter… an enemy of Islam,’ adding confidently, ‘I don’t regret being here.’
Begum immediately began wearing Western dress and attempting to disassociate herself from ISIS and its brutal crimes, which drew widespread condemnation.
She countered her image as a willing enthusiast by drawing analogies to her upbringing while wearing sunglasses, a white blouse, black leggings, and speaking after watching coverage of the Platinum Jubilee on TV in the camp.
‘I was an angel, you can ask my mum, I was an angel,’ she said. ‘In secondary school, they [Amira and Kadiza] were like my only friends because I like to have a small group of friends. I prefer quality over quantity.
‘I did not like my primary school because I faced some racism there, not constantly, but at a young age one thing is enough. Not bullied, but little comments and stuff and favouritism with teachers to white kids over non-white kids.’
The prospect of Begum going on trial in Syria comes after her bid to return to the UK to challenge the Government’s decision to strip her of British citizenship was last year rejected by the Supreme Court.
She admitted fears of being a prisoner at Al-Roj ‘for ever’, but the new threat of a death sentence may spark a renewed effort by campaigners to have Home Secretary Priti Patel re-examine the case. The British Government has a long-standing policy of opposing the death penalty.
Meanwhile, Begum – whose three children by Dutch-born ISIS fighter Yago Riedijk have all died – revealed she has been told by others in the camp that her childhood friend Abase is dead. Kadiza is already known to have been killed in an airstrike against ISIS.
‘I got [information] officially that she [Abase] is dead from the last people who came out of Baghuz,’ she said. ‘She is not in the camp, I’ve asked many people and I’m finally believing she is dead.