By Emily Caulkett-
A former Maida Vale rapper accused of being an Islamic State fighter has been found dead in his prison cell in Spain.
Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, 32, once thought to be ISIS killer ‘Jihadi John’ (pictured) was reportedly found dead in El Puerto III Prison near Cadiz yesterday morning (July 27).
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He is understood to have been found dead at a prison in El Puerto de Santa Maria in Cadiz, south west Spain. One unconfirmed local report said his body presented no obvious signs of any violence.
An internal Spanish Prison service investigation will now take place and his family will be given the right to hold their own autopsy aside from the official post-mortem to establish the exact cause of death.
An internal Spanish Prison service investigation will now take place and his family will be given the right to hold their own autopsy aside from the official post-mortem to establish the exact cause of death.
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A separate probe will be carried out by a court in the town of El Puerto de Santa Maria.
The rapper, who grew up in Maida Vale, was known as Lyricist Jinn and L Jinny in the early 2010s.
Following his arrest in 2020, he was dubbed one of Europe’s “most wanted foreign IS fighters” by Spanish police.
Spanish police tweeted: “This is how we arrested one of the most wanted DAESH Foreign Terrorist Fighters in #Europe in #Almería. Of Egyptian nationality, he would have entered Spain illegally and was hiding in a rented apartment. Two other people accompanying him were also arrested.”
He went on trial earlier this month in Madrid on suspicion of joining the Islamic State in Syria between 2013 and 2015. He reportedly denied all charges in court.
The alleged jihadist was awaiting a verdict on the terror charges when he was found dead by prison guards.
According to LBC, an internal service investigation will now be carried out in the Spanish prison.
Bary was born in Egypt but lived and attended Quintin Kynaston school in North West London.
During a hunt for ‘Jihadi John’, who filmed himself putting a knife to American journalist James Foley’s throat and later claimed he beheaded him, Bary initially emerged as a key suspect.
But the jihadist was later identified as a different Londoner, Mohammed Emwazi.
Abdel Bary emerged as a key suspect in the hunt for the man dubbed Jihadi John (pictured) filmed putting a knife to American journalist James Foley’s throat before boasting of having carried out his beheading. The Jihadi was later revealed as Mohammed Emwazi
His alleged accomplices, named before the trial as Abderrazak Seddiki, 30, and Kossaila Chollouah, 27, were accused in a pre-trial indictment of playing other key roles in the fraud including carding which is a type of credit card scam in which a criminal steals or fraudulently uses credit card details to buy prepaid gift cards.
He was alleged to have posted an image of himself holding a severed head on Twitter.
He was accused of posing for a photo with the head in the Syrian city of Raqqa with the caption ‘Chillin’ with my homie or what’s left of him’ in August 2014.
The alleged terrorist, who at his trial showed he had put on considerable weight since his arrest, denied it was him with the severed head.
Insisting he and his family had lived in the UK for more than 30 years and completely adopted a Western lifestyle, Abdel Bary told the court trying him: ‘Al Qaeda and all the radical extremists… I hate them. I don’t agree with their ideology or actions.’
Abdel Bary claimed to be a Syrian national called Ahmed Mohamed Al Oulabi when he was held in Almeria in April 2020.
He has previously been identified as a possible member of a group of four Islamic terrorists known as ‘The Beatles’ because of their British accents, who guarded, tortured and beheaded foreign hostages in Syria.
One Spanish report has suggested Abdel Bary was intending to return to the UK when coronavirus lockdown was over
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