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Shamima Begum's father apologises for daughter's behaviour

‘I request to the British people, please forgive her,’ Ahmed Ali says

Zamira Rahim
Saturday 09 March 2019 18:39 GMT
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Ahmed Ali, the father of Shamima Begum, has asked the British public to forgive her
Ahmed Ali, the father of Shamima Begum, has asked the British public to forgive her (AP)

Shamima Begum‘s father has apologised to the UK for his daughter’s decision to join Isis.

Ahmed Ali said his daughter, who joined the terrorist group in 2015, “had done wrong”.

“She has done wrong, I apologise to everyone as her father, to the British people,” he said in an interview with the BBC.

“I am sorry for Shamima’s doing. I request to the British people, please forgive her.”

Mr Ali now lives between Bangladesh and the UK. He had not been told about the death of Ms Begum’s newborn son at the time of the interview.

“I do not stay there more than that. I do not know much about her [lately],” he said.

“The time I stayed with Shamima, I never felt any such behaviour of going to Syria .”

Mr Ali also asked the British government to bring his daughter back to the UK.

“Take her back and punish her if she had done any mistake,” he said.

Ms Begum is currently living in a refugee camp in northern Syria, having fled Isis territory.

She told a journalist from The Times she did not regret joining the terrorist organisation, in an interview published in February.

The teenager has repeatedly said she wanted to return home so her child could live.

But Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, stripped the British teenager of her citizenship last month.

Independent Minds Q&A session on the Middle East, Trump, Syria and Isis

The death of Ms Begum’s son, Jarrah, from pneumonia, was confirmed on Friday.

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