Shamima Begum 'poses no danger' to British public and should be allowed back after 'rejecting ISIS', claims diplomat

SHAMIMA Begum doesn't pose a danger to Brits and should be allowed back after "rejecting ISIS", claims a former top diplomat.

The 21-year-old jihadi bride fled the UK to join the militant group when she was just 15 – and now says she was just a "dumb kid" and not a terrorist.

And retired US ambassador Peter Galbraith says she should be given the green light to return home to Bethnal Green in London.

Mr Galbraith told the Telegraph: "I’ve talked to Shamima – she is part of the group of women who have absolutely rejected the Islamic State.

"I know enough about her to feel quite confident that she’s not a dangerous person."

Begum is currently being held at Al-Roj prison camp in Syria after she was stripped of her UK citizenship.

In a recent documentary, she told journalist Andrew Drury: "I don't think I was a terrorist. I think I was just a dumb kid who made one mistake."

And she claims she doesn't need to be rehabilitated, but is ready to continue on with the life she left behind in 2015.

"I personally don't think that I need to be rehabilitated, but I would want to help other people be rehabilitated. I would love to help," she said.

"Can I come home please, pretty please?"



Mr Galbraith, who helped a Canadian woman return home after her internment at Al-Roj, told the publication: "There are other woman who have rejected the Islamic State."

Currently, the camp holds more than 700 foreign families who lived under IS – including up to 20 British women and their children.

"The basic position of the British government is that Shamima is somehow dangerous, and I just don't think that's true," Mr Galbraith said.

"She has no place to go.

"There is no doubt that there are dangerous women in these camps. In my mind, it is reasonable for governments to err on the side of caution."

However, he said: "You really can make a judgement about who is safe and who are questionable and there really are some who are unquestionably safe."

Shamima was defeated in her legal battle to return to the UK for a court appeal over the removal of her British citizenship earlier this year.



The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favour of the Government and said Shamima cannot come back to the UK for a court case to reclaim her British passport for the safety of the public.

Delivering the ruling, Lord Reed savaged a previous judgement by the Court of Appeal and said it had "made its own assessment of the requirements of [national] security" without any "relative evidence".

And it emerged this year that Shamima and pals wore ISIS badges on their school uniforms and tried to convince other classmates to join the terror group.

One former schoolmate at Bethnal Green Academy told MyLondon: "They were really pressuring about it, they were like, 'You know, if you don't go to Islam you are going to hell and you are going to die'.

“I never heard anything about ISIS violence. What you got pitched was a sunny, beautiful, idyllic place."

Shamima, Amira Abase and Kadiza Sultana disappeared in February 2015 – and Begum married Dutch Islamic convert and IS jihadi fighter Yago Riedijk just days after arriving in Raqqa.

The pair had three children, all of whom died.

Sultana was said to have married a western fighter with Somali heritage, but wanted to return to the UK after he was killed in battle. She was later killed in a Russian airstrike at the age of just 17.

Despite reports of her death, Shamima claims Abase decided to stay on in Baghuz -and called her pal "strong" after the death of her husband.

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