Dutch Husband of British ISIS Bride Says He Wants Couple To Move Home
HOMESICK
Dutch ISIS fighter who married Briton Shamima Begum when she was 15 tells BBC the couple should be allowed to move back to Europe with their infant son to start over.
Yago Riedijk, the ISIS fighter husband of British-born Shamima Begum, whose British citizenship was revoked last month, told BBC that he would like to take his young family “home” to the Netherlands to start over. In a wide ranging interview with the BBC from inside the Kurdish detention center in northeastern Syria where he is being held, Riedijk explained how he met the young woman when she left the U.K. to join ISIS in 2015. “To be honest, when my friend came and said there was a girl who was interested in marriage, I wasn't that interested because of her age, but I accepted the offer anyway,” Riedijk said in the televised interview. “She seemed ... in a good state of mind. It was her own choice. She asked to look for a partner for her, and I was invited.” When pressed by the BBC journalist, he conceded that she was very young when they wed. “She was very young, maybe it would have been better for her to wait a bit,” he said. “But she didn't, she chose to get married and I chose to marry her.” Riedijk faces up to six years in prison for joining a terror organization if he returns home to the Netherlands. The wherabouts of his wife are unknown after she was removed from a refugee camp for her own safety last week.
