Spy agencies blamed for extreme Jihadi John

THE London man believed to be Islamic State executioner known as “Jihadi John” told a journalist four years ago surveillance by British security services had left him contemplating suicide.

Mohammed Emwazi, named as the militant thought to have beheaded at least five Western hostages held by the IS group, told a British reporter he felt like a “dead man walking”.

British civil rights group Cage, which was in contact with Emwazi, claims British spy agency MI5 had tracked him since at least 2009, and blamed his radicalisation on that “harassment”.

Prime Minister David Cameron and a former head of foreign spy agency MI6 rejected the idea, while London mayor Boris Johnson accused Cage of an “apology for terror”.

In an email to Mail on Sunday reporter Robert Verkaik, dated December 14, 2010, Emwazi described how he sold his laptop to someone he met online who he subsequently came to believe was with the security services.

“Sometimes I feel like I’m a dead man walking . . . I just want to get away from these people!!!” he wrote.

Emwazi was born in Kuwait but moved to Britain as a child and attended school and university in London.

London’s Daily Telegraph reported he went to high school with two other boys who went on to become militants — Choukri Ellekhlifi, who was killed fighting in Syria, and Mohammed Sakr, killed fighting in Somalia.