ISIS bride Shamima Begum plans to get back with jihadi husband and make a new life in the Netherlands
ISIS bride Shamima Begum is planning to get back with her jihadi husband and make a new life in the Netherlands after being stripped of British citizenship.
The moaning teenager, who fled the UK to join the terror group in 2015, was yesterday told of the decision after days of speculation over whether she should be allowed back in the country.
The 19-year-old, who gave birth to her baby boy on Sunday, said she had not been informed of the decision before getting the letter.
She added: "I don't know what to say. I am not that shocked but I am a bit shocked. It’s a bit upsetting and frustrating. I feel like it’s a bit unjust on me and my son.
"It’s kind of heartbreaking to read. My family made it sound like it would be a lot easier for me to come back to the UK when I was speaking to them in Baghouz. It’s kind of hard to swallow.
"I heard that other people are being sent back to Britain so I don’t know why my case is any different to other people, or is it just because I was on the news four years ago?"
She then suggested she might try use her marriage to Dutch jihadi Yago Riedijk as a means of gaining citizenship in Europe.
"Another option I might try with my family is my husband is from Holland and he has family in Holland.
"Maybe I can ask for citizenship in Holland. If he gets sent back to prison in Holland I can just wait for him while he is in prison."
An official Home Office letter breaking the shock news was delivered to Begum's"disappointed" family earlier yesterday.
The letter read: "Please find enclosed papers that relate to a decision taken by the Home Secretary, to deprive your daughter, Shamima Begum, of her British citizenship.
"In light of the circumstances of your daughter, the notice of the Home Secretary's decision has been served on file today (19th February), and the order removing her British citizenship has subsequently been made."
- went on to urge the Begum family to make their daughter aware of the decision while adding she had the right to appeal.
“We do not comment on individual cases, but any decisions to deprive individuals of their citizenship are based on all available evidence and not taken lightly.”
The Conservative chair of the Commons Education Committee, Robert Halfon, who had spoken out against allowing Shamima to return, said in a tweet that Mr Javid had made "absolutely the right decision".
However, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Sir Ed Davey said: "Membership of a terrorist group is a serious crime, as is encouraging or supporting terrorism. But Shamima Begum should face justice for those crimes in the UK.
"It is not only hard to see Ms Begum and her baby as constituting a serious threat to national security, but it also seems a huge wasted opportunity.
"We can learn lessons as to why a young girl went to Syria in the first place - lessons which could improve Britain's security by helping us prevent this happening again."
However, last night one immigration lawyer she may get back into Britain because of her baby.
BABY CHANCE
Asif Salam, an immigration solicitor from Salam Immigration, said: "The child cannot possibly live without his mother, it’s not in his best interest for the child to be in the UK without the mother.
"So because of the child, the mother could by default get back her nationality or get a limited leave to remain – to be able to live with her child in the UK."
Earlier we reported how Begum will be quizzed by cops and could be arrested if she returns to the UK.
Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said the teenager would be spoken to by counter-terror cops if she returns to the UK from Syria.
She said: "If she does... arrive at our borders somebody in her type of circumstances could expect, of course, to be spoken to and if there is the appropriate necessity, to be potentially arrested and certainly investigated.
"If that results in sufficient evidence for a prosecution then it will result in sufficient evidence for a prosecution. The officers will deal with whatever they are confronted with."
The former Brit schoolgirl fled from her home in Bethnal Green, East London, as a 15-year-old to join Islamic State in 2015.
She has this week pleaded to be allowed to return home after giving birth to a baby boy.
Ms Begum said in a BBC interview: "I actually do support some British values and I am willing to go back to the UK and settle back again and rehabilitate and that stuff."
She added: "The poster girl thing was not my choice."
ARENA OUTRAGE
However she also said the murder of 22 music fans in the Manchester Arena suicide bombing was “fair justification” for air raids on IS in Syria.
Showing no remorse, the 19-year-old dismissed the atrocity at the 2017 Ariana Grande concert as “retaliation.”
She 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 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 had been consulting their lawyer about legal action against the government to force it to allow the teenager back into the country.
However, Home Secretary Sajid Javid had warned he "will not hesitate" to prevent the return of Britons who travelled to join ISIS.