A former British rap artist and alleged jihadist has died in custody in Spain, the Interior Ministry said Thursday.
Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary was found dead in a Spanish prison Wednesday, the ministry said. The cause of death is yet to be confirmed.
Abdel Bary was arrested in 2020, accused of heading a jihadist terror cell. He was facing up to 9 years in prison. A trial was set for sentencing July 14 and he was awaiting verdict.
Abdel Bary, 32, left London in 2013 to join an Al Qaeda faction and later ISIS militias in Syria. He made a name for himself on social media sites by showing himself clutching the severed head of one of his alleged victims.
Before joining the Jihad, Abdel Bary performed as rapper lyricist under the name Jinn.
He was the son of an Egyptian operative of Al-Qaeda who was convicted for events related to the 1998 bombings at U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 224 people. Abdel Bary stopped making music not long after his father’s extradition to the U.S. on terror charges.
Spanish police arrested Abdel Bary and two other men in April 2020, shortly after they crossed the Strait of Gibraltar on a skiff from Algeria.
He was accused of leading a jihadist terror cell formed by him and the two other men, dedicated to committing internet banking scams and trafficking in cryptocurrencies to “finance their terrorist activities”.
Abdel Bary denied being a cell leader during the trial.
