Shabazz Suleman: British IS fighter says he spent time 'on PlayStation and riding bike'
Shabazz Suleman, who spent his birthday in a Syrian jail, gives his first face-to-face interview since being detained.
Tuesday 31 October 2017 08:40, UK
A grammar school boy from High Wycombe who was captured in Syria trying to flee Islamic State has insisted he spent most of his three years in terrorist territory playing PlayStation and riding his bike.
Shabazz Suleman, who had his 22nd birthday in a Free Syrian Army jail on the Turkish border, told Sky News he had made a "naive" mistake by joining the terror group.
Suleman is now desperate to return to the UK - making his plea to come back days after Government minister Rory Stewart said the "only way" to deal with British IS fighters is to kill them "in almost every case".
"Yeah, I made the wrong choice," he said from a secret location in northern Syria, where he spoke to us in his first face-to-face interview since being detained.
Suleman said he had doubts about the Islamic extremists about five months after joining them.
He said he spent some time in Syria in 2014 "doing aid work," but then crossed over again in 2015 while on a family holiday in Turkey.
He was caught by Turkish authorities on the border and put in jail with dozens of IS fighters where he says he bowed to "peer pressure".
He agreed to be part of a controversial prisoner swap which the Turkish authorities had brokered with IS in exchange for Turkish hostages and has remained in IS territory for the past three years.
He said: "The international community abandoned Syria - it's well known. So when I saw ISIS fighting the Syrian regime and gaining results and the picture, the propaganda they were sending out to young Muslims like us…at the beginning it was more romantic jihad, protecting civilians - it wasn't about beheading or killing.
"It was there to defend the Syrians - honestly I came here for that first, but ISIS changed. Four or five months into ISIS I wanted to leave."
Looking thin and gaunt and much older than his 22 years, the young man smiled and often laughed as he recalled his three years living in one of the most brutal regimes of recent times.
He admitted receiving weapons training early on and was sent to fight on the front line of the Iraqi border.
But he insisted he did not take part in the battles, managing to avoid firing a single shot.
On returning from the front line, he said he asked to quit IS and was thrown into jail, spending some time in the prison set up under the stadium in Raqqa city centre.
After a month of watching people being tortured and beaten up, he said he "gave in" and agreed to stay with IS but asked for a role that kept him away from the fighting.
He said he was transferred to the Military Police - part of the IS structure aimed at keeping order amongst the civilian population.
But again Suleman insisted he was mostly office-bound, playing games on his laptop or on guard duty at checkpoints.
He said: "I take responsibility. I was with ISIS, I was with a terrorist organisation. But I didn't kill anyone, I hope I didn't oppress anyone.
"I did have Kalashnikov and a military uniform, but I didn't hit anyone, I didn't oppress anyone, if you understand. I was there with military police but like I said, I was in the office."
He spoke longingly of returning home but said he was worried about the reception he may receive in Britain.
"If I get prosecuted, I get prosecuted - I guess it's my destiny.
"I'd regret it. I don't want to spend more of my life in prison. I want to get on with my life.
"I want to get back to life. I'm 22. I think every day I'm wasting another day in ISIS territory, now I'm in prison wasting more of my life.
"Depending on my prison sentence, if I get a long sentence, I don't want to go back to Britain. If it's short, I'd do prison and go out, get a job, continue my studies in politics…whatever."
Suleman spoke about how he'd gone into hiding to try to avoid fighting, sitting in various houses in Raqqa playing GTA (Grand Theft Auto) or Metal Gear Solid on a PlayStation and having "a normal life in IS territory".
He said he would ride his bicycle and see the bodies of those who had been crucified and hung around the notorious roundabout in the city centre.
He insisted that towards the end he was not alone in feeling disillusioned, with many of the foreign fighters having regrets.
"Many ISIS fighters are not what you perceive them to be," he said.
"Many of them came with a simple cause - to fight the Assad regime - but they happened to join the group ISIS.
"I was planning to join a different group, Ahrar al Sham in Idlib. It's not a terrorist organisation but the reason I joined ISIS is because they declared a caliphate.
"A caliphate is like a magnet - it attracts all the foreign fighters."
"Do you see yourself as a terrorist," I asked him?
He replied, laughing: "No - it's very weird. You think of a terrorist as someone with a mask and sword cutting off people's heads.
"I was relaxing, hiding in Raqqa quietly, playing PlayStation or going around on bike rides - normal life in ISIS territory trying to evade ISIS checkpoints."
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And he spoke of his biggest regret - causing his family in Buckinghamshire such worry.
He said: "I feel like I've just caused them pain.
"They're always worried. I regret what I put my family through - I wish I could redeem myself for that as well."