There is no concrete proof that Mohammed Emwazi is the ISIS cutthroat known as Jihadi John, his father claims.
“There is nothing that proves what is being circulated in the media, especially through video clips and footage, that the accused is my son Mohammed, who is being referred to as the alleged executioner of Daesh [ISIS],” Jassem Emwazi explained to the Kuwait-based Al-Qabas newspaper, according to AFP.
“I have a message to the Kuwaiti people that many of the rumors are false,” he added. “Because I felt that some people have believed it, I have assigned a lawyer to defend me and to prove … that what is being said is untrue.”
It was revealed Tuesday that the elder Emwazi told a co-worker over the phone that he had disowned his son after he was identified as the Islamic State executioner. He claimed he had been so “ashamed” that he refused to go to work or his local mosque to pray.
But it appears that the elder Emwazi has done an about-face — and now believes his son is not the man behind the mask seen in ISIS videos in which hostages are beheaded.
“His face is covered,” his attorney, Fahd Khaled Aba Alkhail, told NBC News. “There’s no evidence this is his son … Maybe the name here is correct but the face is not.”
When questioned about whether this means Western security agencies had pegged the wrong guy, Alkhail reiterated that there was “no evidence” against Mohammed Emwazi, according to NBC.
“We cannot know,” Alkhail said. “This is all false accusation.”
The elder Emwazi told the Al-Qabas newspaper that he has hired a team of lawyers, who will work in the UK and Kuwait, in order to prove “that what is being said is untrue.”
It is not clear why he appeared to retract his previous statements about his son, but his attorneys have said they plan to file lawsuits against those who made accusations that Mohammed is Jihadi John.
A media firestorm was sparked last week after authorities identified the ISIS savage as the 21-year-old London college grad. Kuwaiti government officials claimed that Mohammed’s mother had immediately recognized her son’s voice on the video of the James Foley beheading.
