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'Jihadi John' suspect Mohammed Emwazi 'kidnapped schoolboys at gunpoint and dumped them at side of M1'

Emwazi allegedly forced teenagers into a car and ordered them to strip to their underwear

Heather Saul
Thursday 05 March 2015 12:56 GMT

Jihadi John’ suspect Mohammed Emwazi allegedly kidnapped two schoolboys at gunpoint and dumped them at the side of the M1 motorway, a report has claimed today.

Emwazi forced the teenagers into a car and ordered them to strip to their underwear, a source described as a former friend told The London Evening Standard.

He then dumped them at the side of the motorway in retaliation for a gang attack on the friend and Emwazi's younger brother the previous day, which he says was sparked by “post-code rivalries”.

The alleged incident occurred in 2008, when Emwazi was still a student at the University of Westminster.

He was unmasked in reports last week as the infamous British Isis militant who appeared in a number of videos showing the beheading of journalists and aid workers.

The former friend, who was aged 14 at the time, said he went to Emwazi’s home on an estate in Queen’s Park to buy a stolen bike from his brother, but was seen by two people from a rival estate on his way there.

“I was planning an ‘in and out job’ but two guys saw me. There was a big fight. They threw a brick at my head and broke my arm, [Emwazi’s brother] was punched in the face a few times and beaten up,” he said.

The next day, Emwazi appeared “with two religious guys with beards”, the friend claimed. “They drove round in a car and found these two guys who attacked us, threatened them with a gun, made them take all their clothes off and drove off. They dumped them on the M1 motorway. They weren’t attacked physically but they were threatened. It was a message.”

The former friend said he saw the men in school the next day, where they apologised.

“Mohammed was a bit of a hard nut,” he added. “He wasn’t into gangs but people were wary of him. They were pretty scared.”

Emwazi’s brother was convicted of handling stolen bicycles at Isleworth crown court in 2012, according to the paper.

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