List of Items to buy is Found Belonging to Girls who Allegedly Ran Away to Syria
A handwritten list was found in the bedroom of one the London girls believed to have run away to Islamic State, it features items they needed to buy as well as the cost of travel tickets.
The plane tickets to take them to Turkey are listed as costing over £1,000 and the items written seem to comply with Islamic State’s guidelines for new recruits.
Shamima Begum, aged 15, Kadiza Sultana, aged 16, and Amira Abase, aged 15, travelled from London to Turkey last month. Labelled star pupils from Bethnal Green Academy in east London, they allegedly intend to become “jihadi brides”. Police were given the list by the family of one of the girls who went through her things straight after she left.
It is suggested the girls’ meticulously planned the cost of their trip though their families stated they had no idea where the girls got the money from. A total was written on the list at £2,190 for the whole trip and items. Written in a diary planner, each item was listed with the initial of one of the girls in brackets which may indicate they were to purchase the item or use it. Items included an epilator at £50, two sets of underwear for two girls at £12, socks for £4 and a phone for £75.
Also on the list are makeup, boots and a bra. The bottom of the list, apparently written by someone else, lists the costs to Turkey and then across the border to Syria. These sums include money for visas, a coach, a hotel for one or two nights, a taxi and some extra cash.
Last week the girls’ families criticised the police for failing to pass on information about another girl from the same school who also allegedly travelled to Syria, arguing that if they knew they might have been able to prevent their daughters from following.
The Met issued a statement disputing the family’s accusations that they did not reveal information about a fellow student who had also supposedly run away to Syria. They claim the families were told in December 2014 by the deputy head teacher of the Bethnal Green Academy. However hours later they retracted their statement citing “further discussions with Bethnal Green Academy”.
Police wrote letters to the parents saying their children had been friends with the pupil who had gone abroad and asked for permission to take formal statements. But instead of delivering the letters directly to the parents, police handed them on 5th February to the girls themselves, who hid them in their school textbooks in their bedrooms. The families only found the letters after the girls left.
The Met then admitted in a statement, “With the benefit of hindsight, we acknowledge that the letters could have been delivered direct to the parents.
