Relatives of four British Islamic State
members now subject to UN sanctions have dismissed the penalties as
“useless grandstanding” as an expert on jihadis labelled the measures “a
strange way to target Isis”.
Nasser Muthana, 21, from Cardiff; Aqsa Mahmood, 21, from Glasgow; Omar Hussain, 28, from High Wycombe; and Sally Jones, a 46-year-old Muslim convert from Chatham, Kent, all had travel bans and asset freezes imposed on them.
A Twitter account believed to be used by Jones also appeared to mock the sanctions before being suspended on Monday night.
All four Britons are thought to be in Raqqa, the de facto capital of Isis on the banks of the Euphrates river in Syria. They are the first Britons to have UN sanctions imposed on them at the request of the UK government since 2006.
Responding to news of the sanctions on Tuesday, Ahmed Muthana, the father of Nasser Muthana – who vanished with his brother Aseel, 18, from the Welsh capital last year – described the move as “crazy”.
“I don’t know what the government and UN are thinking,” he said, adding that he had not been warned of the move and that his son had no assets to freeze. “There’s nothing. We have nothing.”
Gesturing to his modest modern terraced house in the Butetown area of Cardiff, the retired engineer said: “We wouldn’t be living like this if there were any assets.”
Muthana said stopping Nasser from travelling made it even more likely that his son would not leave Syria. “He is trapped there. I don’t think I will ever see my sons again. I’ve never heard from them,” he said.
Equally scathing were Mahmood’s family in Glasgow, who described the sanctions as “useless grandstanding” that would do nothing to limit her activities and “more importantly do very little to deter young people from being recruited to Isis”.
Nasser Muthana, 21, from Cardiff; Aqsa Mahmood, 21, from Glasgow; Omar Hussain, 28, from High Wycombe; and Sally Jones, a 46-year-old Muslim convert from Chatham, Kent, all had travel bans and asset freezes imposed on them.
A Twitter account believed to be used by Jones also appeared to mock the sanctions before being suspended on Monday night.
All four Britons are thought to be in Raqqa, the de facto capital of Isis on the banks of the Euphrates river in Syria. They are the first Britons to have UN sanctions imposed on them at the request of the UK government since 2006.
Responding to news of the sanctions on Tuesday, Ahmed Muthana, the father of Nasser Muthana – who vanished with his brother Aseel, 18, from the Welsh capital last year – described the move as “crazy”.
“I don’t know what the government and UN are thinking,” he said, adding that he had not been warned of the move and that his son had no assets to freeze. “There’s nothing. We have nothing.”
Gesturing to his modest modern terraced house in the Butetown area of Cardiff, the retired engineer said: “We wouldn’t be living like this if there were any assets.”
Muthana said stopping Nasser from travelling made it even more likely that his son would not leave Syria. “He is trapped there. I don’t think I will ever see my sons again. I’ve never heard from them,” he said.
Equally scathing were Mahmood’s family in Glasgow, who described the sanctions as “useless grandstanding” that would do nothing to limit her activities and “more importantly do very little to deter young people from being recruited to Isis”.
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