'I'm a teacher not a terrorist': ISIS suspect emails Star claiming to be in Turkey

Sajid Aslam, who is said to have crossed the border from Turkey to Syria two years ago, today claimed his innocence in an email to the Star.

He says he is working in south eastern Turkey, teaching child refugees who have fled the Syrian civil war – two months after his wife Lorna Moore was convicted of concealing information he was joining Isis.

A court jury heard Aslam had flown from Stansted Airport to Istanbul and then to Gaziantep on the Turkish/Syrian border – where he met two friends from Walsall to enter Syria and join Isis.

But in the email sent to this newspaper, Aslam, 34, formerly of Glebe Street, denies he ever entered the war-torn country. He has provided a 67-page document allegedly proving he is living in Turkey.

In the email, he said: "I would hope that my message reaching the public domain would spur or pressure the authorities to respond to my attempts to contact them, and that ultimately I would be given the opportunity to return to Britain to prove my innocence and my wife's innocence – reversing the damage of the terrible suspicions, accusations and terrible miscarriages of justice."

He also calls on the British authorities to employ him to tackle extremism within the British Muslim community, adding he is 'proud to be British'.

His wife Moore, 33, who converted to Islam after meeting Aslam in 2000 and moving to Walsall, was found guilty of failing to alert authorities about Aslam's plans to travel to the so-called Islamic State.

She was released on conditional bail up to her sentencing and warned by the judge she should have 'no expectations raised' about the likely sentence.

Aslam claims he is now too scared to reveal his location or return to the UK in fear 'of being unjustly incarcerated by the British authorities as yet another victim of their unyielding and ruthless hunt for Muslim terrorists'.