SHE SHOULD BE IN A BRITISH PRISON Family of pregnant ISIS bride’s recruiter say any parent would rather jail than battlefield death
THE family of a British girl who joined Islamic State say jihadi brides should be allowed to serve jail terms in the UK.
The parents of Aqsa Mahmood spoke out as the row raged over fellow recruit Shamima Begum.
Londoner Begum, 19, is due to give birth any day and wants to have her baby here – on the NHS.
Mahmood was 20 when she joined IS in 2013, inspiring other Brits to follow. She is believed to have been killed as the so-called IS caliphate crumbled.
Aamar Anwar, a lawyer for Mahmood’s family, who live in Glasgow, backed Begum.
He said: “If it was your daughter would you not want her back? Aqsa’s mother and father vociferously condemned their daughter.
“But they always said they would rather see their daughter behind bars in Scotland cotland than dead on a battlefield. eld. Sadly, it is more than likely ely they will never see her again.”
Mr Anwar described cribed
Begum as “deeply y traumatised and scarred, red, a young mother who ho has lost two babies”. He added: “Would you rather her baby grew up in the hellhole that houses 40,000 ISIS family members, where 20 infants died of hypothermia or hunger every month, or would you prefer giving an innocent child the right to life?”
Begum was found in a Syrian refugee camp last week. She told how she was unfazed by seeing severed heads and failed to express any remorse for the horrors perpetrated by IS.
Her family said in a statement: “We will do everything within our power to protect Shamima’s unborn baby, who is entirely blameless in these events.”
But the plea for Begum to be allowed back has met with widespread rejection. Tory MP MP Rob Halfon said: “She should get asylum in a Middle Eastern country. If you participate in terrorist genocide then there will be no rights of return.”
As the row continued, the last Syrian enclave held by IS – in Baghouz – was on the brink of capture by ar army forces. Spokesman Mustafa Mu Bali said the SDF h had caught several milit militants but many civilians were still held as human shields. dan.warburton@ dan
mirror.co.uk