Canada’s Justin Trudeau has pledged to “follow up” on allegations that former Daesh* bride Shamima Begum was smuggled into Syria at the age of 15 by a double agent working for the terror group and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).
The work of the people trafficker was purportedly then covered up by the police and Britain’s security services, according to claims made in 'The Secret History of the Five Eyes', a newly published book by Richard Kerbaj.
Although Trudeau emphasized that intelligence services needed to be “flexible and creative… in their work to keep Canada and Canadians safe in a very dangerous world,” he told a press conference:
“I know there are questions about certain incidents or operations of the past and we will ensure to follow up on those. We will continue to ensure that proper oversight is done and, as necessary, look at further steps.”
Canadian Asset ‘Linked’ to ‘Trafficking’ Shamima
According to the book, on 17 February 2015, Begum left her London home and traveled to Turkey with two other teenage girls - Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase – who have since died.
They were purportedly met in Istanbul, Turkey, and smuggled to Syria by Mohammed Al Rasheed, a “double agent” for Canada’s intelligence agency, who also worked for Daesh terrorists.
After Al Rasheed was arrested in Turkey several days later, his alleged role in the human trafficking surfaced. However, two officials from the CSIS are claimed to have visited the UK’s Scotland Yard in early March 2015, shortly after Begum’s disappearance. They are said to have told the then head of counter-terrorism at the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), Richard Walton, that their agent had helped Begum and her friends reach Daesh-held territory. Walton, who gave an interview for the book, claimed that the CSIS agents expressed hope at the time that their actions linked to Begum’s disappearance “would not become a focus for investigation”.
Begum, who married a Dutch national while she was in Syria and gave birth to three children but lost them all, subsequently had her British citizenship revoked in 2019 by the then Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, after she was branded a "threat to national security".
At the time, the UK Supreme Court upheld that decision and Begum, now 23, has been living at a detention camp in northern Syria ever since.
During an interview in 2021, Begum said she wanted to come back to the UK to face charges, insisting she had been "groomed" to flee to Syria as an impressionable child.
Begum is reportedly due to make a fresh case at the special immigration appeals commission in November, with her family’s lawyer, Tasnime Akunjee, arguing she had been ‘trafficked’ out of the UK, and, as such, should be protected by the government, not persecuted. According to the lawyer, they had been informed about a “Canadian asset's involvement in the trafficking of Shamima” back in 2015, but there had not been any confirmation from official sources.
He deplored the fact that even though Walton had admitted the involvement of a Canadian agent, he was still being "fobbed off" by Scotland Yard.
"The problem is I'm dealing with the UK police force who have lied and the Canadian security service who are supposed to be our allies that made a calculation to allow children to be trafficked to their demise." He added:
"The UK has international obligations as to how we view a trafficked person and what culpability we prescribe to them for their actions. The most shocking element of this is that integral to that traffic network were the actions of a Canadian intelligence asset. Someone who is supposed to be an ally protecting our people rather than trafficking British children into a war zone. Intelligence gathering looks to have been prioritized over the lives of children,” Akunjee said.
*Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist organization outlawed in Russia and many other states