LONDON: A woman who lost her British citizenship after joining Daesh said Wednesday she would be prepared to return to face terror charges so she can prove her innocence.
Shamima Begum was 15 when she traveled from her home in London in 2015 with two school friends to Syria, where she married a Daesh fighter and had three children.
Dubbed “IS bride,” she was stripped of her British citizenship after a right-wing media outrage when she was tracked down by reporters to a displacement camp in 2019 and defended the militants.
The Supreme Court earlier this year rejected her permission on public safety grounds to return to Britain to challenge the government’s decision.
But she has denied being directly involved in the preparation of acts of terror.
“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,” she said.
“These claims are being made to make me look worse because the government do not have anything on me. There is no evidence because nothing ever happened,” she told ITV.
Begum, now 22, said the only crime she had committed was “being dumb enough to join IS,” and asked for forgiveness from all those who had lost loved ones to the extremists.
“I am so sorry if I ever offended anyone by coming here, if I ever offended anyone by the things I said,” Begum, wearing a baseball cap and vest top, said from Syria.
Lawyers for Begum, whose father is Bangladeshi, have accused Britain of racism in its treatment of her, accusing the government of making her a scapegoat.
They have said she was “a child trafficked to and remaining in Syria for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced marriage” and the government’s actions leaves her stateless.
Bangladesh’s foreign minister has said he will not consider granting her citizenship.
Some 900 people are estimated to have traveled from Britain to Syria and Iraq to join Daesh, creating a legal headache for the UK authorities now the conflict is over.
About 150 are believed to have been stripped of their citizenship.
Begum, whose three children conceived after her arrival in Syria all died, was first seen in 2019 wearing a black hijab and said she did not regret traveling to Syria.
But she has since been seen in Western clothing and expressed remorse for her actions, and sympathy for Daesh victims.
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Daesh bride Shamima Begum says prepared to face terror charges in UK
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Daesh bride Shamima Begum says prepared to face terror charges in UK
- Shamima Begum was 15 when she traveled from her home in London in 2015 with two school friends to Syria
- Lawyers for Begum have accused Britain of racism in its treatment of her
French TV broadcasts Louvre robbery images
- Video shows the brazen jewel thieves breaking into display cases
- Four suspects are in police custody over the October 19 heist
PARIS: Footage of the spectacular robbery at the Louvre Museum has been broadcast for the first time on French television, showing the brazen jewel thieves breaking into display cases.
The images, filmed by surveillance cameras, were shown by the TF1 and public France Televisions channels on Sunday evening, three months after the hugely embarrassing break-in in October.
They show the two burglars, one wearing a black balaclava and a yellow high-visibility jacket, the other dressed in black with a motorcycle helmet, as they force their way into the Apollo Gallery.
After breaking in through a reinforced window with high-powered disk cutters, they begin slicing into display cases under the eyes of several staff members who do not intervene.
Managers at the Louvre have stressed that staff are not trained to confront thieves and are asked to prioritize the evacuation of visitors.
The security failures highlighted by the break-in on a Sunday morning in broad daylight have cast a harsh spotlight on management of the institution and director Laurence des Cars.
Trade unions are pressing for more recruitment and better maintenance of the vast former royal palace, launching several days of strikes in recent months.
Another stoppage on Monday forced a full closure for the third time since December, leaving thousands of tourists disappointed outside again.
Four suspects are in police custody over the October 19 heist, including the two suspected thieves, but the eight stolen items of French crown jewels worth an estimated $102 million have not been found.
During the roughly four minutes that the two men were inside the gallery, one staff member can be seen holding a bollard used to orient visitors through the gallery, according to France Televisions.
The images, as well as multiple DNA samples found at the scene, form a key part of the ongoing criminal investigation into the robbery.
Details of the footage have been reported in French newspapers, including Le Parisien.
Metal bars have been installed over the windows of the Apollo Gallery since the break-in.
The images, filmed by surveillance cameras, were shown by the TF1 and public France Televisions channels on Sunday evening, three months after the hugely embarrassing break-in in October.
They show the two burglars, one wearing a black balaclava and a yellow high-visibility jacket, the other dressed in black with a motorcycle helmet, as they force their way into the Apollo Gallery.
After breaking in through a reinforced window with high-powered disk cutters, they begin slicing into display cases under the eyes of several staff members who do not intervene.
Managers at the Louvre have stressed that staff are not trained to confront thieves and are asked to prioritize the evacuation of visitors.
The security failures highlighted by the break-in on a Sunday morning in broad daylight have cast a harsh spotlight on management of the institution and director Laurence des Cars.
Trade unions are pressing for more recruitment and better maintenance of the vast former royal palace, launching several days of strikes in recent months.
Another stoppage on Monday forced a full closure for the third time since December, leaving thousands of tourists disappointed outside again.
Four suspects are in police custody over the October 19 heist, including the two suspected thieves, but the eight stolen items of French crown jewels worth an estimated $102 million have not been found.
During the roughly four minutes that the two men were inside the gallery, one staff member can be seen holding a bollard used to orient visitors through the gallery, according to France Televisions.
The images, as well as multiple DNA samples found at the scene, form a key part of the ongoing criminal investigation into the robbery.
Details of the footage have been reported in French newspapers, including Le Parisien.
Metal bars have been installed over the windows of the Apollo Gallery since the break-in.
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