Three girls 'in Islamic State sharia camp' as Met Police told to apologise to families
THE chief of the Metropolitan Police should "say sorry" to the families of three British schoolgirls feared to have joined the Islamic State in Syria, their lawyer has claimed.
Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe has been told to apologise for Scotland Yard issuing a misleading statement about information passed on to the families of Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16 and Amira Abase, 15.
This weekend, the Met Police finally admitted the families of the girls – now understood to have arrived in the Islamic State's de-facto capital of Raqqa in Syria - had not been informed that another teenager from their school had travelled to the war-torn region.
Instead they were told were simply told she had gone missing.
The trio are now believed to be at "IS headquarters and attending a sharia training camp", sources told LBC.
The force admitted that "with the benefit of hindsight", letters to the parents of the pupils at Bethnal Green Academy, east London, should have been delivered directly rather than being sent home with the girls.
The trio vanished just days later.
Police issued a statement on Saturday apparently rejecting their families' claims that they had not been told about the other 15-year-old's disappearance.
It is a disgrace that the Met in their original press release effectively accused their families of being liars
However, they were forced to retract this statement hours later, citing “further discussions" with the girls' school.
Both the girls' families and Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, will appear before the House of Commons' Home Affairs Select Committee tomorrow.
Tasnime Akunjee, the solicitor acting on behalf of the families, told the Guardian: "I would encourage the commissioner in his upcoming select committee appearance on Tuesday to do the right thing by these distraught parents and say sorry.
"It is a disgrace that the Met in their original press release effectively accused their families of being liars.
"The families have expressed that the deepest source of upset in this affair has been the failure by the police to inform them of the fact that the first girl to go missing had gone to Syria, a fact that was only known to them after their own children had also gone missing.
"It is precisely the failure to communicate this key piece of information which disabled the family from intervention in the children's plans."
The girls' families have previously spoken out to say that they feel let down by the police.
Their daughters flew to Istanbul in Turkey from Gatwick Airport last month and are now believed to be in Syria.
It emerged at the weekend that the schoolgirls are reportedly staying in the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa and are being hosted by another British girl, Sky News reported.
