![Renu Begum, eldest sister of Shamima Begum, then 15, holds her sister's photo as she is interviewed by the media at New Scotland Yard, as the relatives of three missing schoolgirls believed to have fled to Syria to join Islamic State pleaded for them to return home [Getty Images]](/sites/default/files/2022-07/GettyImages-464129912%20%281%29.jpg)
Canada to investigate claims Shamima Begum was 'trafficked to Syria' by its spy
Canada to investigate claims Shamima Begum was 'trafficked to Syria' by its spy
Canada will look into claims that a spy working for its intelligence trafficked Shamima Begum and two other British teenagers to the Syrian border, where they entered IS-controlled territory
3 min read
A new book claims that Shamima Begum was trafficked at the age of 15 to Syria by a Canadian intelligence agent [Getty]
Canada will investigate claims that a spy working for Canadian intelligenceÌý,ÌýPrime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday.
´¡ÌýBBC Ìýand a hadÌýfound that Begum,Ìýwho fled the UK and joined the with two friends in 2015, was smuggled by a Canadian agent.
Trudeau said the authorities would "look into"Ìýthe accusations.
"The fight against terrorism requires our intelligence services to continue to be flexible and to be creative in their approaches," Trudeau said following the swearing-in of two cabinet ministers.Ìý
"But every step of the way they are bound by strict rules, by principles and values that Canadians hold dear, including around the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and we expect that those rules be followed."
He defended Canada's intelligence services, saying that theyÌýkept the country safe "in a very dangerous world".
According to the BBC investigation, Mohammed Al Rasheed helpedÌýBegum, then 15, and fellow East London teenagersÌýKadiza Sultana and Amira Abase travel from anÌýIstanbul bus station to the Syrian border in 2015, where they entered territories controlled by IS.
Al Rasheed now says he assisted other British men, women, and childrenÌýenter SyriaÌýbut only to pass information about this and other intelligence on ISÌýto the Canadian embassy in Jordan.
He claims that the embassy had promised him Canadian citizenship if he assisted with information gathering on IS, which by 2015 controlled large parts of eastern and northern Syria as well as huge swathes of northern and western Iraq.
This included Begum's passport details, which Canada shared with the UK but allegedly not the whole story on Al Rasheed's role inÌýIS trafficking operations until much later when the plot was uncovered, according to the new book.
A senior intelligence agent confirmed to theÌýµþµþ°äÌýthat Al Rasheed was passing information about IS in SyriaÌýon to Canadian intelligence while smuggling people into the war zone.
Begum was stripped of her UK citizenship in 2019, after she was discovered at the Al-Hol detention camp following the collapse of IS's self-declared caliphate. She gave birth to three children during her time in Syria, .
The trafficking revelation could helpÌýBegum's Ìýand return to the UK.
Begum confirmed to theÌýBBCÌýin the upcoming '' podcast Al Rasheed's role in the operation.
"He 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," she claimed.
"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."
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