Natalie Bracht

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Natalie Bracht is a joint citizen of the United Kingdom and Germany who travelled to Daesh-occupied Syria, and married Celso Rodrigues Da Costa, a UK citizen who volunteered to be a jihadi fighter.[1]

Bracht father is a former UK paratrooper, who married a German woman, who raised Bracht in Germany.[1] She returned to Scotland as an adult.

According to The Daily Record Bracht became a subject of press coverage in 2008, when she disappeared from her home in Sunderland, with her five daughters, because she feared child services authorities were going to take them away from her.[2][1] On November 20, 2008 The Northern Echo reported that she disappeared on May 17, 2008, and that her parents were still appealing to her to emerge from hiding.[3] Bracht was found in Munich on November 25, 2008.[4] Her daughters were taken away by German authorities, when she was apprehended, while trying to travel to Turkey. German authorities released her, without charge, a month later.[5]

Da Costa is reported to have courted her, online, while, in the UK, while married to Reema Iqbal.[5] The two women, and Bracht's daughters, traveled with Da Costa to Daesh-occupied Syria in 2014. Bracht's father says that she phoned him, in alarm, from Hungary, telling him she was in fear for her life, saying her traveling companions might kill her, if she tried to defect.

While the press did not issue him a nickname, Da Costa is alleged to have been part of the unit identified with "Jihadi John", who tortured and murdered captives.[5]

Bracht had two more children, in Syria.

In 2019 The Daily Mail reported that Bracht, and four other women, Reema Iqbal, her sister Zara Iqbal, Ruzina Khanam and Maylbongwe Sibanda, constituted a female jihadi cell.[6]

In 2018 Bracht was believed to have made her way to a refugee camp. The location of her children is not known.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 John Dingwall (2018-10-28). [https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/our-door-always-open-scots-13497265 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ex-para-begs-for-daughter-natalie-bracht-to-get-second-chance-jlh5xrvsl "Scottish dad asks for second chance for Muslim convert daughter who became ISIS bride"]. The Daily Record. https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/our-door-always-open-scots-13497265 https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ex-para-begs-for-daughter-natalie-bracht-to-get-second-chance-jlh5xrvsl. Retrieved 2019-03-14. "In her last dramatic phone call, Bracht had told her parents she was in Budapest, the Hungarian capital, with a group of Muslims who had taken away her passport. She was with three of her seven children at the time. 'She sounded scared,' said Brown. 'She told me, 'Please pick me up, I’m on my way to the Austrian border. If they find me they’ll kill me.' '" 
  2. "Police appeal for help after missing mum and five daughters flee to Devon". Exmouth Journal. 2008-07-15. https://www.exmouthjournal.co.uk/news/tuesday-july-15-police-appeal-for-help-after-missing-mum-and-five-daughters-flee-to-devon-1-434426. Retrieved 2019-03-14. "A NATIONWIDE search is on for missing mum Natalie Bracht who has mental health problems and is thought to be staying in the Dartmoor area of Devon. Natalie, 34, fled her home in Sunderland with her five daughters on May 17 after she was informed that all five of the girls - aged between four and 13 - were about to be taken into the care of their local authority." 
  3. Matt Westcott (2008-11-20). "Missing woman's parents in appeal for her to come forward". The Northern Echo. https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/3865005.missing-womans-parents-in-appeal-for-her-to-come-forward/. Retrieved 2019-03-14. "Natalie Bracht, 35, left her home in Sunderland on May 17 with her daughters - Indira, Naima, Elinour, Manjuh and Naomi, aged between five and 13 - when she learned they might be taken into care." 
  4. "Missing mum Natalie Bracht found safe with daughters". The Journal. 2008-11-25. http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/missing-mum-natalie-bracht-found-4494355. Retrieved 2019-03-14. "Following a six-month search carried out by Northumbria Police with the support of forces across the UK and in Europe, Ms Bracht and all five of the girls were found safe and well in Munich yesterday." 
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 George Martin (2018-10-28). "Members of Britain's biggest suspected female jihadi cell including the Muslim convert daughter of an ex-Army paratrooper are among dozens of Isis brides flocking back to the UK". Daily Mail (UK). https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6325411/Dozens-British-Isis-brides-flocking-UK.html. Retrieved 2019-03-14. "After being released without charged she was said to have fallen in with jihadi preachers in Germany, and western intelligence sources say Bracht ended up in Syria towards the end of 2014." 
  6. Chris Dyer (2019-03-10). "UK sisters being held in Syrian detention camps with their five children were stripped of their British citizenship when they married ISIS jihadis". Daily Mail (UK). https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6791601/Britain-strips-two-IS-brides-citizenship.html. Retrieved 2019-03-14. "The pair were reportedly part of a five-strong all-female terror cell after travelling to the war-torn country from east London in 2013 with their husbands."