Mohammad Emwazi (Photo : YouTube)
Until Mohammed Emwazi was recently officially unmasked as Jihadi John, the notorious decapitator of the Islamic State (IS), no one knew his real identity. However, a number of British dailies did not believe that Ghanema Emwazi did not recognize Mohammed when she was shown an IS video by authorities.
The newspapers reported that she allegedly screamed "that's my son" when shown a video of Jihadi John beheading American hostage James Foley. On Friday, Ghanema filed a lawsuit before the High Court in London against The Telegraph and The Times.
Press Gazette explains that Ghanema sued only the two dailies that were the first to report that news in print on March 3 and online on March 2, respectively. She is represented by Bindmans LLP in the lawsuit.
Ghanema, in her claim form, said that she would be "guilty of a serious criminal offence under the Terrorism Act" if she knew Jihadi John's identity and did not admit it to authorities. She said The Telegraph did not contact her for comment, because if it did, she would have told the daily that she has never heard or seen the videos of Jihadi John and did not suspect the beheader was her son Mohammad until she read it in media reports in late February 2015.
The Telegraph based its story on a testimony given by Jassem Emwazi, Mohammed's father, to Kuwaiti police and its sources familiar with Kuwait's probe. The Times pointed to interviews with Al-Qabas newspaper in Kuwait as the source of the article.
In filing the lawsuit, Ghanema said the articles destroyed her reputation and character as well as caused her distress, anxiety and grave embarrassment. She sought up to £100,000 damages from The Telegraph.
However, a reader of Press Gazette commented that Ghanema did not have "shame about giving birth to one of the greatest monsters of our time." That monster has inspired Zack Davies of North Wales to dress like Jihadi John and search for the boyfriend of his mother. But when he could not locate the boyfriend, Davies instead attempted to kill Dr. Sarandev Bhambra, an Asian dentist, using a hammer and machete, Daily Mail reports.
For the attempted murder in a supermarket, Judge Rhys Rowlands sentenced on Friday Davies to a minimum of 14 years in prison. A known white racist, Davies is fascinated with the Nazis and IS, having made repeated online searches on beheading and mutilating victims.
