Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
ISIS terrorist: Let my jihadi bride live with me in Holland
Fighter wants to be with Shamima
THE terrorist husband of jihadi bride Shamima Begum wants her to live with him in his native Netherlands. Islamic State fighter Yago Riedijk, 27, who fathered three kids with the teenager, is in a Kurdish detention centre in Syria and faces six years’ jail at home. But although he admits fighting for the murderous group and is on a terrorism watch list, his Dutch citizenship has not been withdrawn.
Begum, 19, born in Britain to parents of Bangladeshi heritage, has had her citizenship revoked by the Home Secretary. Riedijk said he saw nothing wrong with marrying Shamima when she arrived in Syria aged 15 after running away with two fellow schoolgirls from the Bethnal Green Academy in East London. He told the BBC: “I wasn’t that interested because of her age, but...she seemed in a good state of mind. It was her own choice. Yeah, it might have been better for her to wait a bit. But she chose to get married and I chose to marry her.” The welder of Arnhem said he rejected IS and tried to leave but was imprisoned and tortured in their former stronghold Raqqa, accused of being a spy. He told Sky News he “did not have direct involvement in...hurting or harming people”. And he said Shamima is “not a danger to anyone”, adding: “She never really did anything besides being a wife.”
He last saw her around six weeks ago, and said: “Wherever she goes, I’m going to go. If my country wants me, I either take my wife or I stay with her.”
The couple’s first two children died without access to proper medical care. Their third, Jarrah, was born last month in the al-hawl refugee camp near the Iraq border, where thousands fled from IS’S last stronghold in Baghouz.