A Muslim police officer who tweeted racist messages and was in regular contact with a suspected female jihadi in Syria has finally been suspended – a year after being exposed by The Mail on Sunday.
Ruby Begum, 27, was hailed an inspirational role model after footage showing her bravely confronting anti-lockdown protesters while wearing a hijab went viral two years ago.
But in the months before joining the Metropolitan Police in 2016, she used Twitterto insult Jews and mock the 9/11 attacks.
She frequently used the offensive term ‘kuffar’ to describe non-believers, writing in July 2014: ‘Kuffar lips have been all over my mug there is no way I’m using that thing again.’
Elsewhere she described Pakistanis as ‘p***s’.
After being alerted by this newspaper, the Met referred the matter to the Independent Office for Police Conduct and Miss Begum was placed on ‘restricted duties’.
Following an investigation, the Met said yesterday that she had ‘a case to answer for gross misconduct’. She now faces a hearing ‘on a date to be determined’.
‘On 9 August 2022, she was suspended from duty.’
Miss Begum communicated over many months with a woman thought to have fled Europe in 2014 to live under the Islamic State’s so-called caliphate.
The woman would later acquire notoriety for appearing to defend male terrorists’ use of minority group Yazidis as sex slaves.
Without offering explanation, Miss Begum wrote around this time that her own passport was confiscated for a month.
Miss Begum ran a Twitter account under the name Ruby Beees from 2012. Most of her antisemitic comments were made in 2014 when Israel attacked the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. She tweeted: ‘Dirty Zionist. Jahannam [hell] is awaiting.’ In another, she said: ‘Israel have no limits. Scumbags.’
There is no suggestion that Miss Begum tried to join IS or go to Syria, and some of her tweets indicate she was appalled by the group’s behaviour.
