FAMILY ROWS PLAYED OUT IN COURT

Extracts from an argument recorded at family home on the mobile phone of one of his sisters DEC 20, 2013: JJ: ‘I’ve not done anything wrong…. I’m not bothered about police. Lock me up. Am I bothered if they lock me up? JJ (on hiding his passport): ‘You’re going to make me do something stupid.’ Sister: ‘What do you mean by something stupid?’ JJ: ‘No, I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to clarify it.’

Sister: ‘That sounds like a threat to me.’

JJ (after his father Akram begs him not to

go to Syria): ‘You don’t want me to go….. But I want to. And I am going to go, regardless.’

JJ (asked why he has come to see his family is if he has made up his mind):

‘Cause you’re my family, that’s why.’

Sister: ‘Oh yeah, yeah, family.’ JJ: ‘Yeah, but other things are more important.’ Sister: ‘That’s fine. All of a sudden you’re not like that.’ JJ: ‘No, yeah, I’m not. All of a sudden I’m not like that ’cause I’m brainwashed, I’m tapped, I’m whatever. I’m blind, that’s why.’ Father: ‘Honest, I swear to my God, I’ll testify against you [in court]’

JJ: ‘Do it.’ Father: ‘He encouraged my son to go to Syria, I’ll tell them.’

JJ: ‘What have I done wrong?’ Father: ‘That, son, you will find that out in court.’ His mother Yasmin then brands him a ‘murderer’ for helping his younger brother Mohammed go to Syria where he is missing, presumed dead. She adds in despair: ‘If this religion doesn’t allow respect for a mother and father… if there is no consideration for a mother and father… this is not the religion of my prophet, peace be upon him. Yours is a different religion. ‘These things do not exist in the religion of the one sent by Allah the Great. Not these things…. ‘They have been taken over by somebody who is – is a real enemy of Islam. And he is having the young children of mothers killed. He is some tyrant.’

Finally: JJ: ‘You know I will go, I think it’s for the best, to be honest.’

Sister: ‘Just go. And don’t come back.’ Text messages from his wife, Shameila after noticing his passport is missing:

OCT 24, 2013: ‘Jamshed I just want to say that you know at the post office they take a debit card as proof of name. ‘You have never used your passport in the past so it’s strange that you feel the need to use it now. Please don’t be sneaky with me and just be straight!’

DEC 2, 2013: (after informing him she is

pregnant: ‘No point in giving my opinion… Even if I am your wife…. ‘Jamshed you refuse to take on board anyone’s opinion unless I’ve got a gun and I’m in Syria.’