Set free, grammar school boy who joined IS fanatics

A FORMER grammar school pupil who joined Islamic State has been freed from detention in Syria, it was revealed yesterday.

Shabazz Suleman, 23, was handed over to a charity in Syria after a court ruled there was not enough evidence to sentence him. His whereabouts are now unknown.

Suleman, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, was escaping IS territory in October 2017 when he was caught by the rebel Free Syrian Army. He was tried by a Syrian opposition-run court in the city of Jarablus, but despite admitting joining the terror group, he was found not guilty, an FSA spokesman said.

Rebel commander Abu Sleiman told The Daily Telegraph: ‘Shabazz was with our guys that handled the Daesh (IS) file and then he went to court, he was released and handed over. That was about a month ago. He was given to the organisation he had worked for before.’

He criticised the UK Government for taking ‘no interest’ in Suleman, pictured. It comes after jihadi bride Shamima Begum, 19, from Bethnal Green, east London, was stripped of her passport despite wanting to return to Britain with her newborn son.

A former pupil at the Royal Grammar School in High Wycombe, Suleman claimed he had volunteered with the Humanitarian Relief Foundation ( IHH), a Turkish non- governmental organisation, before joining Islamic State in Syria in 2015. An IHH spokesman told the Telegraph yesterday that they were unaware of Suleman.

It comes just a week after US President Donald Trump urged the British Government and other European countries to take responsibility for their citizens who fought for IS and try them in their home country.

Four British IS suspects are being held by rebels in Syria, including Jack Letts, El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey, as well as seven British women.

Britain says security concerns are behind its decision not to allow IS fighters to return to the UK and be put on trial.

A senior Government official told the Telegraph that Britain wanted the jihadis to face justice where they were caught.

In an interview with Sky News in 2017, Suleman said: ‘When I saw IS fighting the Syrian regime and gaining results and the propaganda they were sending out to young Muslims like us… at the beginning it was more romantic jihad, protecting civilians – it wasn’t about beheading or killing.

‘I was there to defend the Syrians – honestly, I came here for that first, but IS changed. Four or five months into IS, I wanted to leave.’

Suleman added: ‘I take responsibility. I was with IS, I was with a terrorist organisation. But I didn’t kill anyone, I hope I didn’t oppress anyone. I did have a Kalashnikov and a military uniform, but I didn’t hit anyone, I didn’t oppress anyone. I was in the office.’