The parents of Shamima Begum have pleaded with the Home Office to grant her an ‘act of mercy’ and return her British citizenship following the death of her newborn son. The 19-year-old’s baby Jarrah died from pneumonia in a Syrian refugee camp on Thursday at just 18 days old.
A lawyer representing the family has now written to Home Secretary Sajid Javid to ask him to reconsider and allow her to come back into the country.
In the letter, posted to Twitter, lawyers argue ‘it is extremely unlikely that Shamima will be in a fit state to make any rational decisions’.
It comes after the father of the teenager, who flew to Syria to marry an Islamic State fighter in February 2015, apologised for her joining the group. Begum was just 15 when she left her home in Bethnal Green, London, with two other British schoolgirls to join the terror group.
According to the letter, her family have still not been able to contact Shamima directly since the baby’s death. The family’s lawyer Tasnime Akunjee, told Sky: ‘Following the tragic and entirely avoidable death of Shamima Begum’s son, we have written to the Home Secretary requesting that he reconsider his original decision to strip Ms Begum of her British citizenship.
