Jihadi bride Shamima Begum has pleaded for mercy from politicians after being stripped of her UK citizenship and has said she is 'willing to change', as her family say they are ready to challenge the decision to ban her from Britain in court.
Begum, 19, was told on Tuesday of Sajid Javid's decision to revoke her citizenship after the teenager, who fled London aged 15 to join Islamic State's self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria, said she wanted to return with her newborn son.
The BBC reported this evening that Begum's family would challenge Mr Javid's decision and in a letter being sent to the Home Secretary they say they are 'sickened by the comments she made... but as her family they cannot simply abandon her.'
The letter, written by her sister Renu Begum on behalf of the family, said: 'We wish to make clear, that along with the rest of the country, we are shocked and appalled at the vile comments she has made to the media in recent days.
Jihadi bride Shamima Begum has pleaded for mercy from politicians after being stripped of her UK citizenship - and has said she is 'willing to change', as her family say they are ready to challenge the decision to ban her from Britain in court
The letter, written by her sister Renu Begum on behalf of the family, said: 'We wish to make clear, that along with the rest of the country, we are shocked and appalled at the vile comments she has made to the media in recent days'
'These are not representative of British values, and my family entirely reject the comments she has made.'
But added: 'Shamima's status will be for the courts to decide in due course.'
Her family's letter comes shortly after Begum, in an interview with Sky News, said she will not allow her son - who she claims is unwell - to travel to Britain without her.
She said: 'I am struggling to get my supplies in right now. I don't have a card because they lost my card, so I have to run around to take care of my son now, when I am sick. I am not getting my stuff.'
The remorseless 19-year-old, pictured here in an interview, is hanging her hopes on her captured husband Yago Riedijk being sent back to the Netherlands
Shamima Begum and her friend fled to Syria by flying to Istanbul and getting a bus across Turkey to the ISIS capital, Raqqa. She moved to Mayadin with her jihadi husband Yago Riedijk but fled Baghuz when he was captured and is now in al-Hawl
In a direct plea to British politicians, Shamima Begum said: 'I would like them to re-evaluate my case with a bit more mercy in their heart, you know.'
And insisted: 'I am willing to change.'
The Bangladeshi ministry of foreign affairs today insisted she would not be allowed into the country.
When it was put to her that Bangladash had rejected an possibility of her entry, Begum said: 'I don't have anything there, another language, I have never even seen the place, I don't know why people are offering that to me.'
Mr Javid previously stated Begum's son Jerah - apparently named after a 7th century Islamic warlord - could still be British despite his mother losing her citizenship.
However shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said the Government 'could not subvert the rule of law' just because it is 'not convenient'.
She told BBC Radio 4's World At One: 'You cannot strip people of their British nationality under international law if it will leave them stateless.
'That's the legal position and we are a country of laws.'
Shamima Begum told Sky News today that she is 'willing to change' and pleaded with politicians to treat her case with 'a bit more mercy'
It comes as peers demanded the 650-year-old Treason Act be updated to prosecute returning jihadists who have 'betrayed' Britain.
Labour former security and counter-terrorism minister Lord West of Spithead said it was 'appropriate that as a nation we show how repugnant this is and how appalling that sort of behaviour is'.
Lord West said that, as a minister, he found it difficult at times to take to court people who should have been prosecuted there.
Peers have called for the 650-year-old Treason Act to be updated to prosecute returning jihadists who have 'betrayed' Britain.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid came under pressure at question time after deciding to revoke Islamic State bride Shamima Begum's British citizenship.
Labour former security Lord West of Spithead said it was 'appropriate that as a nation we show how repugnant this is and how appalling that sort of behaviour is'.
Lord West said that, as a minister, he found it difficult at times to take to court people who should have been prosecuted there.
'This seems to me a way it can be done,' he added.
'Update the treason law and show these people to be traitors, something that our nation really believes they are.'
Home Office minister Baroness Williams of Trafford said recent legislation had already given more powers to the courts to prosecute.
'I agree the 1351 Treason Act is rather an old Act. Of course it was relatively recently updated in 1861.'
Lady Williams said she was not dismissing the demand.
The Home Secretary had said he would look at it and the Home Office kept all laws under review.
But she said prosecuting terrorists for treason risked 'giving their actions a political status or glamour they do not deserve, rather than treating them merely as criminals'.
Independent crossbencher Lord Alton of Liverpool said no one wanted to 'glamorise' such actions but those who sought to justify the murder of British citizens in the bombing of the Manchester Arena in 2017 or took up arms against British forces and civilians had 'betrayed this country, its people, its values and its laws'.
Lord Alton said it was time to provide a 'solid legal basis', rather than the 1351 Act, for prosecuting hundreds of returning jihadists, so those responsible for 'heinous crimes' could not expect to evade prosecution.
Lady Williams agreed that such people should not escape justice and insisted new powers given to the police might prevent some of 'the terrible things that we have seen in recent months'.
Liberal Democrat Lord Paddick, a former Met Police deputy assistant commissioner, said yesterday the minister had implied that it was difficult to prosecute those involved with IS as the UK effectively had no extradition arrangements with Syria.
'That is why the Government had to deprive people of their British citizenship,' he said.
'Many of these people want to return to the UK but the Government is preventing them from returning to face justice by depriving them of their citizenship.'
Lord Paddick asked: 'Is the Government's strategy confused or is it just me?'
To laughter, Lady Williams replied: 'I think it might be you.
'It is difficult to prosecute people in Syria.
'We have no consular access in Syria.
'People have been prosecuted when they come back to this country.
'There are a number of different remedies available to the Government to try to bring people to justice.'
The Conservative
