The British ISIS bride who got stripped of her British citizenship

Shamima Begum, now twenty, went to war-torn Syria, as a fifteen-year-old, to join the Islamic State as an ISIS bride

Shamima Begum, a British citizen of Bangladeshi origin, went to the Syrian war zone, in 2015.

She went to Raqqa in northern Syria attracted by the Islamic State, where she married a Dutch convert fighter, had three children with him and stayed as an ISIS bride.

Last February, the 20-year-old was found in the al-Hawl camp in northern Syria and was immediately stripped off her British citizenship.

She had appealed against the government's decision over her citizenship, but lost the first stage of it, on February 7.

Shamima Begum loses appeal for her citizenship

In February last year, the former British Home Secretary Sajid Javid stripped her UK citizenship.

She got to know about the decision in an interview with ITV News, the decision which she described as "hard to swallow", "upsetting, frustrating and unjust".

She urged the UK government to let her in the country, for her son Jarrah, who later died of pneumonia, aged less than three weeks.

On Friday she lost her first appeal against her loss to citizenship at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission.

On the question that the decision would leave her stateless, the commission said that she could instead turn to Bangladesh, where she was "a citizen by descent", BBC reported.

Under international law, it's illegal to leave a person stateless.

However, in May last year, Bangladesh's Foreign Minister, Abdul Momen, made it clear that if she enters Bangladesh, she would face the death penalty over terrorism charges.

"What is obvious to all" in that Begum was born, raised and radicalised in the UK and was "in no way Bangladesh's problem", the minister had iterated then.

Who is Shamima Begum?

Fed and radicalized with ISIS propaganda, Shamima (aged 15) travelled to Syria, through Turkey, along with her two friends, Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase, in 2015.

Ten days after reaching Syria, she married Yago Riedijk, a Dutch convert recruit.

They had three children together, a girl and two boys, all of whom have died.

"It was all Islamically allowed"

On several occasions, she showed regret for joining ISIS and said that she "doesn't support everything, they stand for".

But in an interview with BBC, though apologetic, she tried justifying ISIS terror attacks, especially the Manchester Arena bombing, as a "two-ways thing", as "women in children are being killed in Islamic State" as well.

On executions carried out by the Islamic State, she said to Sky News that she was "okay with it as she became very religious before she left" and felt "it was all Islamically allowed".

Of her being a threat to national security, she asserted that she "never did anything dangerous, did not take part in propaganda, didn't encourage people to come".

With the UK taking her citizenship and Bangladesh refusing to let her in, Shamima Begum's future is uncertain.

At present, she lives in Roj Camp, in northern Syria.

Source: ibtimes.sg, Shubhangi Shah, February 8, 2020

⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

Cartoons about Capital Punishment

More cartoons about capital punishment HERE

Hanging of Osaka Arsonist is Japan’s First Execution Under Takaichi Government

As a majority of the international community has abolished capital punishment. Japan and the U.S. are the only two countries in the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations that put people to death. The execution of Takami Sunao—an arsonist whose 2009 attack in Osaka killed five—on August 21, 2026, was Japan’s first use of capital punishment in just over a year. Over a Decade from Sentencing to Execution Takami Sunao was executed on August 21, 2026 , for a 2009 arson attack at an Osaka pachinko parlor that killed five people. In July 2009, Takami poured gasoline on the floor of a pachinko parlor in Osaka and set it alight, killing 5 customers and staff members and injuring 10 more. While the defense argued that he was in a state of diminished capacity, the Supreme Court finalized his death sentence in February 2016. The execution took place 17 years after the initial crime and 10 and a half years after the death sentence was finalized.

Japan executes man convicted of killing five in 2009 Osaka pachinko parlor arson

Japan on Friday announced the execution of a man convicted of killing five people after setting fire to an Osaka pachinko parlor in 2009, the first execution by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi 's government as the country faces growing calls for more transparency and the abolition of capital punishment. The Justice Ministry said Sunao Takami, 58, was hanged to death earlier Friday. Takami in 2009 set fire to the crowded pachinko parlor in Osaka by spreading gasoline and throwing a lit match, engulfing the building, killing five and injuring 10 others, Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi said.

Spared execution eight times, oldest inmate in US dies at 101 after 76 years behind bars

Francis Clifford Smith was given his last meal eight times. But after being spared execution each time, he went on to be regarded as the longest-serving prisoner in the US before dying in June at 101 years old. Convicted of murder in 1950 when he was 25, he always maintained his innocence, those who knew him told the BBC. Andrius Banevicius, the public information officer for Connecticut's Department of Correction, recounted how Smith used to feed the birds while in Osborn Prison, earning him the nickname The Birdman of Osborn.

Florida | Jury recommends death sentence for Jeffrey Crum in killing of 12-year-old girl

BROOKSVILLE, Fla. — A Hernando County jury has recommended the death penalty for a 65-year-old man who was found guilty last week of raping and killing 12-year-old Jennifer Odom. Sentencing for Jeffrey Crum was held this week. Crum abducted Odom in 1993 after she stepped off her school bus in Pasco County. Her body was found in a Hernando County orange grove six days later.

Israel builds execution chamber for Palestinians convicted of murder

In March, the Knesset approved legislation that calls for the execution of Palestinians convicted by a military court of killing Israelis Israeli authorities are preparing a prison wing—replete with an execution chamber—designated specifically for Palestinian prisoners convicted of murder, Israel’s i24NEWS channel reported Tuesday. The move comes after the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) approved legislation in March that calls for the execution of Palestinian prisoners convicted by a military court of murdering Israelis.

Florida executes William Frances Silvia

Florida executed its 13th death row prisoner of the year Tuesday evening amid the state’s aggressive use of the death penalty championed by Governor Ron DeSantis. William Frances Silvia, 61, who was convicted of fatally shooting his estranged wife and injuring his mother-in-law in 2006, was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m. after receiving the lethal three-drug injection at Florida State Prison. At 6 p.m. Tuesday, Silvia was already strapped to a gurney with an IV in his arm when the curtain to the death chamber went up. He remained relatively motionless with his eyes and mouth open throughout most of the execution while a priest sat at his feet and prayed.

Alabama is trying a death penalty bait-and-switch

For a decade, Alabama death row inmate Jeffrey Lee has been clear that he does not want to be executed by lethal injection . But that is what awaits him on September 17 . He faces that prospect because the state has been enjoined from using nitrogen hypoxia , the alternative execution method he preferred, to put him to death. Having failed to show that its nitrogen hypoxia protocol is constitutionally acceptable, Alabama wants a do-over to force Lee to die by lethal injection as a result of its own failure. It should not get one. Alabama should only be able to put Lee to death if it can fix nitrogen hypoxia’s constitutional defects.

Oklahoma executes Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez

Oklahoma has carried out 1 of 3 executions set for the same day in the United States in another sign of the resurgence of the death penalty in the country. Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez was pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 13, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. He was put to death by lethal injection for the murder of his common-law wife in 2003 at their Oklahoma City home. He admitted to police he shot her twice during an argument. Cuesta-Rodriguez, 70, did not fight for his life, stunning his attorneys in July when he told the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board that he didn't want clemency. "It's time for me to pay for what I did," he said.

Israel’s Ben-Gvir posts video of gallows site for hanging Palestinian terrorists

Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has posted a video of the construction of a gallows complex where Palestinians convicted of terror offenses will be hanged. Ben-Givr said the new execution site would be equipped with viewing booths for families of victims to watch the hangings. He posted the video on social media of a visit he had made to the unidentified location, where he can be seen pointing at foundations being laid and saying it was where “terrorists will be executed." Photographs in the Israeli media showed a bulldozer and heavy construction work in a cordoned-off area, reportedly close to a prison.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog