Shamima Begum was 'smuggled into Syria by Canadian spy'
31 August 2022, 10:09
Shamima Begum and her two friends are believed to have been smuggled into Syria by a Canadian spy.
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Ms Begum left her east London home for Syria at the age of 15, fleeing with Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase to join so-called Islamic State (IS) more than seven years ago.
Mohammed Al Rashed, who is alleged to have been a double agent working for the Canadians, met the girls in Turkey before taking them to Syria in February 2015, a book claimed.
It said he was providing information to Canadian intelligence while also smuggling people to IS.
The Canadians could not have stopped the journey as the trio had crossed the border by the time Rashed's handler was told, the book suggests.
Canada was understood to have privately admitted its involvement, amid concerns of being exposed, and then asked the British to cover up its role.
The alleged cover-up was revealed in The Secret History of the Five Eyes by Richard Kerbaj - an ex-security correspondent of The Sunday Times - which is based on interviews with world leaders and over 100 intelligence officials.
Five Eyes is an alliance between Britain, the US, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, whereby all five countries share intelligence.
A source for the alliance said: "The CSIS officers knew that Scotland Yard had a live investigation into the three schoolgirls and also knew that sooner or later the finger would point at them."
CSIS officers organised to meet Commander Richard Walton - previously the Met's head of counterterrorism - to admit their agent's involvement.
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Meanwhile, in an upcoming podcast called I'm Not A Monster, Ms Begum is quoted as saying: "He [Rasheed] organised the entire trip from Turkey to Syria... I don't think anyone would have been able to make it to Syria without the help of smugglers.
"He had helped a lot of people come in... We were just doing everything he was telling us to do because he knew everything, we didn't know anything."
In February 2019, Ms Begum was found, nine months pregnant in a Syrian refugee camp.
Ms Begum has since denied any involvement in terror activities and has pleaded with the UK Government to let her back in the country after it decided to remove her citizenship.
Ms Sultana was reportedly killed in a Russian air raid and Ms Abase is missing.
A spokesman for the UK Government said: "It is our longstanding policy that we do not comment on operational intelligence or security matters."
Last summer, during an interview, Ms Begum said she wanted to be brought back to the country to face charges and added in an appeal to the Prime Minister that she could be "an asset" in the fight against terror.
She added that she had been "groomed" to flee to Syria as a "dumb" and impressionable child.
