ISIS prison boss is Dutch-Moroccan engineer: report

The prison where murdered American journalist James Foley was locked up in Syria, is being run by a Dutch Moroccan engineer, according to reports.

Guy van Vlierden, journalist for Belgian newspaper “Het Laatste Nieuws”, has reported that the criminal dossier on Flemish former jihadist Jejoen Bontinck makes mention of ’Abu Obeidah el Maghreba’, who followed an engineer’s training in the Netherlands. The ’el Maghreba’ addition to his name hints that he is of Moroccan descent.

According to the Belgian news reports Bontinck (19), who was jailed after refusing to take part in the fighting, gave extensive statements about the prison boss. Abu Obeidah el Maghreba runs the Syrian prison where several Westerners are locked up; in the area that he is in charge there is also a hospital and a courthouse located.

Bontinck apparently shared James Foley’s cell for three weeks and the two men developed a deep personal relationship during extensive conversations. They had shared each other’s details, to be able to alarm their families in case one of them escaped. Bontinck escaped and went in hiding in the Netherlands for a while before returning to Belgium.

Foley was beheaded on August 19; the barbaric video footage of his killing was uploaded to Youtube.

The masked man who is holding the knife to Foley’s throat is believed to be Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, a 23-year-old London rapper and the son of an Egyptian militant facing terrorism charges in connection with Al Qaeda's bombings at the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

Bontinck lawyer has said that his client’s statements have been shared with intelligence services.