Memorial held for British IS hostage unseen for six years

THE family of John Cantlie, the British photojournalist kidnapped by IS, has held a memorial for him, six years after they last received proof of life.

Mr Cantlie, from Winchester, was kidnapped in Syria in 2012. He was held hostage and tortured for years by jihadists before reports on him stopped.

Between 2014 and 2016, IS released a series of videos that featured Mr Cantlie. He had also appeared in an earlier video, scrawny and unshaven, wearing an orange jumpsuit, sitting at a desk with a black background and believed to be speaking under duress.

The final video of Mr Cantlie in December 2016 showed him in the Isheld city of Mosul as the Iraqi army and Us-led coalition ramped up its offensive against the terror group.

The Free John Cantlie Twitter group, which shared news about sightings, also closed its account yesterday.

“John would have been 52 today,” the group’s last post read. “It is nearly six years since there was any proof of his being alive… We are respecting the family’s wishes to remember who John was, not what was done to him.”

Mr Cantlie was reported dead in 2017 by media citing Iraq’s Al Sura news agency, which said he was killed in the Mosul operation. The reports have never been confirmed independently.