Summary A British woman who fled to Syria with her son to join IS group has been jailed for six years.
BIRMINGHAM (Agencies) - A mother who fled to Syria with her toddler in a bid to join Islamic State (ISIS) has been jailed for six years.
Tareena Shakil, 26, from Birmingham, took her son to the capital of the caliphate in Raqqa in October 2014.
During her two-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court, the jury were shown tweets, messages and photographs from her, including images of the black flag of ISIS and passages calling on people to ‘take up arms’, and stating her wish to become a ‘martyr’.
Photographs recovered from Shakil’s phone showed images of her wearing an IS balaclava, and posing with firearms.
The jury heard Shakil, formerly of Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, told her family she was going to Turkey for a beach holiday with her young son but secretly travelled across the border into Syria after wishing to live under Sharia law.
She told the court she returned to the UK in February last year after realising she had ‘made a mistake’ and was arrested at Heathrow Airport.
Sentencing the bright former college student, Judge Melbourne Inman said: ‘You embraced ISIS, you sent messages on the day of your arrival in Syria that you were not coming back and by October 28 you were sending a message to your brother-in-law that it was part of your faith to kill the murtadeen (apostates) and on December 9 you told your father you wanted to die a martyr.’
The judge told Shakil it was clear she had been "radicalised" following online conversations with prominent members of the terrorist group, including Fabio Pocas.
He said: "You had followed tweets and other statements from radical preachers and terrorists and formed your views from those and from discussions you had with a known terrorist, and who you described as being involved in the training of terrorist fighters for ISIS."
As an unmoving Shakil looked on from the secure dock, the judge said she had planned her flight to the de facto IS capital of Raqqa and researched travelling without arousing suspicion.
"Exactly what occurred in Raqqa is far from clear," he added.
"You told lie after lie to the police and in court between February and November 2015, including that you were kidnapped, were not responsible for any tweets and any incriminating photographs were staged against your will.
"You pleaded not guilty and told more lies to the jury which they have understandably rejected."
The judge described Shakil s decision to involve her young son, 14 months old at the time of travel, as a serious aggravating factor.
"Most alarming, however, is the fact that you took your son and how he was used," he said.
"The most abhorrent photographs, however, were those taken of your son wearing a balaclava with an ISIS logo and specifically the photograph of your son, no more than a toddler, standing next to an AK47 under a title which, translated from the Arabic, means father of the British jihad ."
Shakil had also encouraged other women to join her in Raqqa.
