MI5 and police came into contact at least a dozen times with the man identified yesterday as Jihadi John before he was able to flee Brita...
MI5 and police came into contact at least a dozen times with the man identified yesterday as Jihadi John before he was able to flee Britain for Syria, it emerged last night.
The security services made a botched attempt to “turn” Mohammed Emwazi after he was first intercepted when they feared he was trying to join a Somali terrorist group six years ago.
On Thursday night, the daughter of one of his victims questioned how he was able to slip through the net. The Security Service is expected to face a parliamentary inquiry into its contacts with him and whether more could have been done to stop him. The case has echoes of the fanatic Michael Adebolajo, who was approached by – and known to – MI5 before going on to murder Fusilier Lee Rigby in 2013.
Intelligence agencies in the UK and America had suggested for several months that they knew the killer’s true identity but it was a closely guarded secret. It is understood they only knew definitely last September.
The hooded Isil killer had been known to MI5 since at least 2009 and had been part of a notorious west London network of fanatics called “The London Boys”.
The Security Service and police had questioned him or members of his family on a dozen occasions, including an attempt to recruit him, it was claimed. But despite being on their watch list, Emwazi was able to slip out of the UK in 2013 and go to Syria where he became the infamous and barbaric Isil figure.
Dubbed Jihadi John, Emwazi has been the face of Isil brutality, responsible for guarding the group’s Western hostages, and handled negotiations with their families before murdering them in a series of horrific videos posted on the internet. He was filmed murdering David Haines, a Scottish aid worker, and Alan Henning, a taxi driver from Manchester who travelled to Syria to help refugees. / Telegraph
