The widow of a man killed by a masked Islamic State militant known as "Jihadi John" says she wants him caught alive.
Dragana
Haines says the "last thing" she wants for the man who killed her
husband, British aid worker David Haines, is an "honourable death".
The
militant, pictured in the videos of the beheadings of Western hostages,
has been named as Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born Briton from west
London.
British police have not commented on his identity, citing ongoing inquiries.
Emwazi,
who is in his mid-20s and was previously known to British security
services, first appeared in a video last August, when he apparently
killed the US journalist James Foley.
He
was later thought to have been pictured in the videos of the beheadings
of Mr Haines, US journalist Steven Sotloff, British taxi driver Alan
Henning, and American aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, also known as
Peter.
Mrs Haines told the BBC: "I hope he will be caught alive.
"That's
the only moral satisfaction for the families of all the people that he
murdered, because if he gets killed in the action, to put it that way,
it will be an honourable death for him and that is the last thing I
would actually want for someone like him.
"I think he needs to be put to justice, but not in that way."
Mr Haines' sister, Bethany, welcomed the identification, but told ITV
News: "I think all the families will feel closure and relief once
there's a bullet between his eyes."
A spokesman for the family of
Steven Sotloff said: "We want to sit in a courtroom, watch him sentenced
and see him sent to a super-max prison."
'The Beatles'
In
each of the videos, the militant appeared dressed in a black robe with a
black balaclava covering all but his eyes and top of his nose.
Speaking
with a British accent, he taunted Western powers before holding his
knife to the hostages' necks, appearing to start cutting before the film
stopped. The victims' decapitated bodies were then shown.
Earlier
this month, the militant featured in a video in which the Japanese
journalist Kenji Goto appeared to be beheaded. Hostages released by IS
said he was one of three British jihadists guarding Westerners abducted
by the group in Syria. They were known collectively as "the Beatles". Mohammed Emwazi timeline:
1988: Born in Kuwait, moves to UK in 1994
2009: Completes computing degree at University of Westminster
Aug 2009: Travels to Tanzania with two friends for
safari but refused entry at Dar es Salaam. Put on flight to Amsterdam.
After questioning there, returns to Dover
Sept 2009: Travels to Kuwait to stay with father's family
July 2010: Returns to UK for short stay but told he cannot return to Kuwait as visa denied
2012: Passes Celta English language teaching course
2013: Changes name by deed poll. Tries to travel to
Kuwait but is stopped. Disappears. Parents report him missing. Police
tell family four months later he has entered Syria
Source: Cage, London-based campaign group 'Jihadi John' movement mapped Emwazi "claimed harassment" In a news conference, Asim Qureshi, the research director of the
London-based lobby group Cage, which had been in contact with Emwazi
over a number of years, explained how he had been approached by the Washington Post for the story and detailed the difficulties Emwazi had had with security services in the UK and overseas.
Mr
Qureshi said Emwazi, who is understood to be about 27, had been
"extremely kind, gentle and soft-spoken, the most humble young person I
knew".
He added that Emwazi travelled to Tanzania in May 2009
following his graduation in computer programming at the University of
Westminster.
He and two friends had planned to go on a safari but
once they landed in Dar es Salaam they were detained by police and held
overnight. Analysis: Frank Gardner, BBC News
US
and British counter-terrorism officials discovered the identity of
"Jihadi John" as far back as last September. The FBI, Britain's MI5 and
other intelligence agencies used a combination of voice recognition
software, interviews with former hostages and on-the-ground research in
London to build up a profile of the man now revealed to be Mohammed
Emwazi.
They have always declined to reveal the name for "operational
reasons". Now that it's out in the public domain, it's emerged that
Emwazi was well-known to MI5 and that it even tried to recruit him as an
informer, years before he went off to Syria to eventually join Islamic
State.
The practice by intelligence agencies of approaching
jihadist sympathisers to work for them is likely to continue. It's
believed both Britain and the US have informers inside the Islamic State
"capital" of Raqqa. Yet this seems to have been little help in stopping
the actions of Mohammed Emwazi, or bringing him to justice. Profile: Mohammed Emwazi Jihadist's 'typical trajectory' Emwazi
then ended up flying to Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, where he claimed
to be met by British intelligence agents from MI5 who accused him of
trying to travel to Somalia, where the jihadist group al-Shabab
operates. He denied the accusation and said the agents had tried to
recruit him before allowing him to return to the UK.
Emwazi was
believed to have travelled to Syria around 2013 and later joined IS,
which has declared the creation of a "caliphate" in the large swathes of
Syria and neighbouring Iraq it controls.
A spokeswoman for Prime Minister David Cameron would not confirm or
deny the latest reports, adding that the police and security services
were working hard to find those responsible for the murder of the
British hostages. Jihadi John sightings
August 2014: Video in which US journalist James Foley is apparently beheaded
2 September 2014: Video in which US journalist Steve Sotloff is apparently beheaded
13 September 2014: Video in which British aid worker David Haines is apparently beheaded
October 2014: Video in which British aid worker Alan Henning is apparently beheaded
November 2014: Video in which Jihadi John is shown
killing a Syrian soldier in a mass beheading, which also shows body of
US aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, also known as Peter Kassig
20 January 2015: Video in which Jihadi John is seen standing alongside two Japanese hostages and demanding a ransom in exchange for their release
31 January 2015: Video released appearing to show Jihadi John beheading Japanese hostage Kenji Goto
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