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British woman Tareena Shakil guilty of joining IS | British woman Tareena Shakil guilty of joining IS |
(35 minutes later) | |
UK mother Tareena Shakil, who took her toddler son to Syria, has been found guilty of membership of so-called Islamic State. | |
The 26-year-old is the first British woman to return from the self-declared caliphate to be convicted of the offence. | The 26-year-old is the first British woman to return from the self-declared caliphate to be convicted of the offence. |
Shakil, of Birmingham, has also been found guilty of encouraging acts of terrorism through messages posted on Twitter. She denied the charges. | |
She had admitted travelling to Syria. | She had admitted travelling to Syria. |
But following a two-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court, the jury rejected her claim that she had only wished to live under Sharia law. | |
'Martyr' wish | |
The jury was shown her tweets, messages and photographs, including images of the black flag of IS and passages calling on people to "take up arms". | |
She had also stated her wish to become a "martyr". | |
Shakil posed her son for pictures wearing an IS-branded balaclava after secretly running away to Syria in October 2014. | |
She told the court it was because he "loved hats". | |
Her defence team maintained she went to Syria with the toddler to escape an "unhappy family life". | |
An NSPCC spokesman said: "It is inconceivable that a mother would be willing to put her child in such a dangerous situation, potentially exposing him to harm and even death." | |
Shakil left IS territory in January 2015. | |
Her defence said she was unhappy in Syria and she told the court: "I came back of my own free will. I came back because I realised I had made a mistake." | |
Analysis by Dominic Casciani, Home Affairs correspondent | |
Tareena Shakil was charged with "membership" of the self-styled Islamic State organisation - but she never had a membership card, says she deeply regrets going to Syria and, in a courtroom twist, told the jury she'd even been debriefed by MI5 on her return. | |
So why did she face this very serious charge? | |
Terrorism legislation basically says that membership of a banned group means to "belong". | |
Some organisations, such as Irish paramilitaries, had formal procedures for membership. With IS, men swear an oath, but the situation with women is less clear. | |
The jury were told to not think about membership in terms of belonging to a library or a gym. Instead, they had to decide whether Tareena Shakil voluntarily went to be with IS in Syria, knowing its aims, how it would achieve them and, crucially, seeking to associate with like-minded individuals. |