Shamima Begum was tracked down to the al-Roj detention camp in Syria, where she appeared pale and thin – at first she agreed to be interviewed by a journalist before storming out
British-born ISIS recruit Shamima Begum stormed out of an interview with a journalist who tracked her down more than 18 months after she was banned from the UK.
Begum, who fled the UK as a teenager, was banned from returning after losing her Court of Appeal challenge over the removal of her British citizenship. She recently agreed to a sit-down interview with the Daily Express, before storming.
She was tracked down to the al-Roj detention camp in Syria, where she appeared pale and thin. Begum was not impressed with the questions she was being asked.
Journalist Richard Ashmore said: “She dismissively gave me ‘no comment’ answers when I asked about her chances of getting home, which could be higher now under Donald Trump than ever before.
“Instead, Shamima asked me if I had anything to tell her, as if the world still owed her something despite the choices she had made.
“As she stormed out of the meeting I was torn between thinking here was a woman who had lost hope, to feeling here was someone throwing a tantrum like a petulant teenager.”
Begum was dubbed the ‘ISIS Bride’ when she ran off to Syria to join the terror group with two school friends in 2015 during the February half term holidays to marry an IS member.
Begum was one of three bright straight-A students from Bethnal Green Academy – along with Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15 – who fled east London and travelled through Turkey to join ISIS. The roles the three played in the caliphate remain uncertain with Begum claiming she was simply a housewife.
Intelligence sources have said she was involved with stitching explosives into suicide vests. She denied having witnessed executions but admitted having seen severed heads discarded in a bin.
Sir James Eadie KC, for the Home Office, said the “key feature” of Begum’s case was national security. “The fact that someone is radicalised, and may have been manipulated, is not inconsistent with the assessment that they pose a national security risk.”