KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait — There is "no evidence" that Mohammed Emwazi is the suspected ISIS executioner known as "Jihadi John," lawyers for the young Londoner's father told NBC News.
Emwazi was identified last week as the masked figure in ISIS propaganda videos depicting the beheadings of Western hostages, including American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff. A co-worker of Jasem Emwazi told NBC News that Mohammed's angry father cried when his son's alleged role in ISIS was revealed by the press and said "May God … take revenge on him as he did to us."
The Emwazi family has been in hiding in London and Kuwait, where Jasem Emwazi was questioned Sunday by investigators for between two and three hours. He was present for an interview there with NBC News on Tuesday, in which his lawyers said their client is "in shock and upset" by the allegations but that there is no proof Mohammed Emwazi is the balaclava-wearing ISIS fighter seen in the grisly videos.
"There's no evidence this is his son," lawyer Fahd Khaled Aba Alkhail said. "His face is covered. We cannot know...This is all false accusation." When asked if that means Western security agencies are wrong, the attorneys reiterated that there is "no evidence."
"Maybe the name here is correct but the face is not," attorney Salem al-Hashash added.
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