JIHADI BABY
ISIS bride Shamima Begum gives birth in Syria – and wants to bring him back to the UK for better care
Pregnant Shamima Begum ran away to ISIS-controlled Syria but now wants to return to the UK to bring up her baby boy
ISIS bride Shamima Begum has given birth to a baby boy in a Syrian refugee camp, her family lawyer announced today.
The Brit, 19, fled to Syria when she was 15 but this week begged to return home to the UK to give birth to her third child.
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She ran away with two pals from Bethnal Green high school, East London, and married a Dutch ISIS fighter.
Family lawyer Tasnime Akunjee said: "We the family of Shamima Begum have been informed that Shamima has given birth to her child, we understand that both she and the baby are in good health.
"As yet we have not had direct contact with Shamima, we are hoping to establish communications with her soon so that we can verify the above."
Begum left the UK to become a jihadi bride but was found by a Times journalist in a refugee camp.
The 19-year-old, who has called herself "weak" for wanting to return to her home country, had previously given birth to two children who died from malnutrition.
She told The Times she didn't regret joining the murderous cult but is now desperate to return home and have her baby with the support of the NHS.
She said: "I'm scared this baby is going to get sick in this camp. That's why I really want to get back to Britain. Because I know it will be taken care of, health wise at least."
A poll taken by talkRADIO revealed 99 per cent of 70,000 listeners don't think she should be allowed back to the UK.
But her family, who believe she was groomed, pleaded for her to be allowed back to the UK "as a matter of urgency".
Her eldest sister Renu told ITV News she was desperate for her sibling to come home.
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She said: "She's pregnant and vulnerable, and it’s important we get her out of al-Hawl camp and home as soon as possible.
"We hope the British Government will help us bring her home to us where she belongs."
It is understood that should Begum make her way back to Britain, she will face legal proceedings by social services to safeguard her child.
She said 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.
The 19-year-old asked: “What do you think will happen to my child? Because I don't want it to be taken away from me, or at least if it is, to be given to my family."
Her family said that if she is jailed for supporting a terror group they want to raise the baby boy.
Muhammad Rahman, 36, whose brother is married to Shamima's elder sister Renu, told The Sunday Telegraph: "Her parents would want custody of the baby. They would want to look after their grandchild.
"I don't think people, feeling the way many do about what Shamima has done, would want the state to pick up the burden of looking after the child.
"Hopefully Shamima can be reunited with her baby after she has been freed from any spell in custody."
FLED TO ISIS IN 2015
Begum left London in February 2015 with two school friends to follow another classmate to Syria.
She said one friend, Kadiza Sultana, had died in an airstrike but the other Bethnal Green girls, Amira Abase and Sharmeena Begum, had stayed with ISIS in Baghuz.
She said she feared she will never see her husband, the Dutch jihadist Yago Riedijk again, whom she still loved “very much”.
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.
Questions have been raised over whether Britain would be able to prevent Begum's eventual return to the UK.
Shamima's parents are consulting their lawyer about legal action against the government to force it to allow the teenager back into the country.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid has warned he "will not hesitate" to prevent the return of Britons who travelled to join ISIS, but Justice Secretary David Gauke told Sky News "we can't make people stateless".
Mr Javid wrote in The Sunday Times that many supporters of ISIS have returned to their home countries, adding: "The difficult challenge we now face is what we should do about those who are still seeking to return.
"As home secretary, my priority is to ensure the safety and security of this country - and I will not let anything jeopardise that."
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However the government's tough stance was undermined when Alex Younger, the head of MI6, said British citizens "have a right to come to the UK".
Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, said anyone linked to terrorist groups "should be fully investigated and where appropriate prosecuted" but added: "We are not in favour of making people stateless."
Kurdish officials have also demanded the UK fulfils its "moral and legal duty" to repatriate Begum and other British Isis members detained in Syria.
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