Now if only we could drone him with a pig carcass packed with explosives.
Jihadi John unmasked: Former Westminster University student was arrested FIVE years ago and put on a terror watch list – but he flew to Syria to join ISIS two years later
- Jihadi John revealed as computing graduate from Queen’s Park, London
- Mohammed Emwazi, 27, is believed to have travelled to Syria in 2012
- Jihadi John has featured in ISIS videos with journalists and aid workers
- ‘Accused by MI5 in 2009 of trying to reach Somalia’, home of Al Shabaab
- Detained by UK counter-terror police in 2010 when arriving from Kuwait
- Emwazi claimed agent from MI5 tried to ‘turn’ him to work for them
- University of Westminster says it is ‘shocked and sickened’ by news
Unmasked: ISIS executioner ‘Jihadi John’ has been identified as Mohammed Emwazi from west London
The Islamic State executioner known as ‘Jihadi John’ was today revealed to be a university graduate from London who flew to Syria despite being on an MI5 terror watch list.
Mohammed Emwazi, 27, of Queen’s Park, west London, who studied computer programming at the University of Westminster, is said to have travelled to the Middle East three years ago and later joined ISIS.
Jihadi John has featured in the execution videos of British aid workers Alan Henning and David Haines, U.S. journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, Japanese reporter Kenji Goto and Syrian soldiers.
Arabic speaker Emwazi has three brothers and sisters and first moved to Britain aged six.
The son of a minicab driver was reported to have been raised in a middle-class family and occasionally prayed at a mosque in Greenwich, south-east London.
But after graduating from university in 2009, he claimed to have been harassed and intimidated by security services – and complained to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
Emwazi alleged an agent from MI5 knew ‘everything about me; where I lived, what I did, and the people I hanged around with’ and claimed the organisation attempted to ‘turn’ him to work for them.
A picture began to emerge today of Emwazi’s background, including the details that:
- The son of a mini-cab driver moved to Britain aged six, having been born in Kuwait
- He has three brothers and sisters and they all lived in a council flat in west London
- MI5 persistently tried to recruit him after he graduated from the University of Westminster
- He claims counter-terrorism police arrested him in 2010 and put him on a terror watch list
- This was to stop him leaving Britain but he still managed to flee the country for Syria in 2012
One of Kuwait-born Emwazi’s close friends identified him, telling a newspaper: ‘I have no doubt that Mohammed is Jihadi John. He was like a brother to me… I am sure it is him.’
