Shamima Begum, the London-born Bangladeshi-origin woman who fled the UK to join the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist network in Syria as a teenager, said she is sorry “from the bottom of my heart” and pleaded with Prime Minister Boris Johnson for a chance to face the UK justice system.
In her first live interview from the Al Roj refugee camp in Syria for ITV’s ‘Good Morning Britain’ programme on Wednesday, the 22-year-old said she would accept any sentence handed down if she were tried in a UK court as she would “rather die than go back to ISIS” and also offered to help Britain combat terrorism.
She insisted she was “groomed and taken advantage of and manipulated” and that her role with the terror outfit was only to be a “mother and a wife”.
“The reason I came to Syria was not for violent reasons. At the time I did not know it was a death cult, I thought it was an Islamic community I was joining,” she said.
“I am willing to go to court and face the people who made these claims and refute these claims, because I know I did nothing in IS but be a mother and a wife. These claims are being made to make me look worse because the government do not have anything on me,” Begum said, with reference to claims she engaged in terrorist acts.