A British-born mother was jailed for more than five years on Friday, having tried to take her children to Syria to live under Islamic State (ISIS) group rule, AFP reported.
The 34-year-old woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, wanted to live under strict Sharia law, Leeds Crown Court in northern England was told.
She abducted her children in October last year with the intention of going to Raqqa, where ISIS has set up the capital of its self proclaimed “caliphate”.
However, her husband and parents contacted the police and she was stopped in Istanbul by the Turkish authorities, reported AFP.
She admitted two counts of child abduction relating to her children, who were both under the age of 16.
“Raqqa is, and was in October 2015, the epicenter of a war zone. Further, it was, and presently remains, under the control of ISIS,” said judge Rodney Jameson.
“It is beyond dispute that ISIS enforce their will by the use of extreme force. Such force routinely includes mutilation, rape and murder. You are an intelligent and well-educated woman; you knew this.
“The fate of your children would have been either to have subscribed, fully and actively, as we have all seen in the appalling use of a young child in an ISIS propaganda video in recent days, to such behavior, or to have suffered it themselves,” the judge continued.
The woman was born in Britain and spent her formative years in Pakistan before returning to northern England.
She became increasingly religious and gave up her job in finance in August last year, before attempting to take her children to Syria.
“This was a terrible betrayal of your responsibilities to your children,” said Jameson, who jailed the woman for five years and four months.
The incident is the latest example of the dangers of radicalization, a phenomenon which has plagued not only Britain but other countries in Europe as well, including France, Spain and Germany.
One of the more well-publicized instances of Britons travelling to Syria to join jihadists was the case of three British teenage girls who crossed the Turkey-Syria border to join ISIS last February.
The three teens, Shamima Begum, 15, Amira Abase, also 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16, are now feared to have reached the conflict zone and are believed to be staying at a house in Raqqa.
In November of 2014, two brothers became the first Britons to be jailed for terrorism training in Syria, after they had admitted conspiracy to attend a terrorism training camp in 2013.
A month later, a British mother of six who hoped one of her sons would become a jihadist was jailed for five years and three months after she used social media to encourage acts of terror in Syria.
AFP contributed to this report.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)
