British rapper-turned Jihadi, Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, found dead in Spanish prison ahead of terror charges verdict

27 July 2023, 00:08

British rapper Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary has been found dead in his Spanish cell after he was tried on terror offences earlier this month.

Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, 32, who was once thought to be ISIS killer ‘Jihadi’ John was found dead in his Spanish prison cell.

Prison guards are said to have found his body after he failed to answer a wake-up call on Wednesday morning at El Puerto III Prison in Puerto de Santa Maria in Cadiz.

The reason for his death remains a mystery, but one report alleged his body showed no obvious signs of violence.

The British rapper turned Jihadist was awaiting a verdict on terror charges from earlier this month.

He had been tried at a court in Madrid on suspicion of heading an itinerant jihadist cell which he allegedly formed after leaving Syria.

An internal service investigation will be carried out in the Spanish Prison.

Meanwhile his family will have the choice to have their own autopsy carried out on his body to establish the cause of death - in addition to the official post-mortem.

A court in El Puerto de Santa Maria is also to carry out a separate investigation into the death.

Read more: Woman claims she was drugged and sexually assaulted by Greater Manchester Police officers after being 'stripped'

Read more: Six bombers convicted for murder for part in Brussels 2016 terrorist attacks which killed 36 people at airport

Abdel Bary was born in Egypt but attended school in London.

The 32-year-old lost his British citizenship after it was alleged he had joined ISIS and he was charged following an investigation into his arrest at a hideaway rented flat in Almeria.

Judge Maria Tardon ruled in her charge against him that he had been smuggled into Spain by boat accompanied by two Algerian men before he was located and detained less than a week later.

Abdel Bary was warned he could face nine years in prison if convicted ahead of his trial at Madrid's Audiencia Nacional court.

The trial finished on July 14, which he was awaiting the verdict of.

The former British national was accused of posing for a photo while holding a severed head and uploading it to Twitter, allegedly taken in the Syrian city of Raqqa in 2014.

It was allegedly captioned: “Chillin' with my homie or what's left of him.”

During the trial Abdel Bary denied all terrorism charges against him and said he had never visited the Syrian city of Raqqa before, insisting he went to the country for humanitarian reasons.

He was arrested less than a week after he was smuggled onto a Spanish beach on the south-east coastline in April 2020, alongside two men described as aides.

Abdel Bary’s aides were named as Abderrazak Seddiki, 30, and Kossaila Chollouah, 27.

Prosecutors said Abdel Bary was the son of Adel Abdel Bari, who was previously convicted for murdering more than 200 people in a series of Islamist bombings in Africa.

But in trial he said: “Al Qaeda and all the radical extremists… I hate them. I don't agree with their ideology or actions.”

Previously the defendant claimed to be a Syrian national named Ahmed Mohamed Al Oulabi when he was held in Almeria in April 2020.

During a former hunt by police for ‘Jihadi John’, Abdel Bary initially emerged as a key suspect.

‘Jihadi John’ filmed himself putting a knife to American journalist James Foley’s throat and later claimed he beheaded him, but was later identified as as Londoner Mohammed Emwazi in February 2015.

Before the 32-year-old’s switch to radicalism, Abdel Bary had achieved some success as a rapper, including some features on Radio 1.

After his radicalisation, he was later identified as a potential member of an Islamic group of terrorists known as ‘The Beatles’, due to their British accents, who tortured and beheaded foreign hostages in Syria.

A Spanish National Police spokesman said at the time of Abdel Bary's detention: “National Police officers have developed a counter-terrorism operation which has culminated in the arrest in Almeria of one of the most wanted Daesh Foreign Terrorist Fighters in Europe.

“Another two people have been arrested and the authorities are currently working to establish their identity and their relationship with the other man.”