Khalid Abdawi was born in 1990 into a well-off family from Oueslatia (central Tunisia) that  describes him as a young man who overcame shyness to pursue an interest in politics.  During the post-revolutionary October 2011 elections, Abdawi worked as a national observer and in 2012 he was a hardworking university student.

Khalid Abdawi was born in 1990 into a well-off family from Oueslatia (central Tunisia) that  describes him as a young man who overcame shyness to pursue an interest in politics.  During the post-revolutionary October 2011 elections, Abdawi worked as a national observer and in 2012 he was a hardworking university student.

Then on March 11, 2013, another, darker side of Abdawi became known to his family when they saw him in a video taken in Syria, hitting and scolding another man—possibly Tunisian— who begged to pray before his impending execution. Abdawi, however, showed no mercy toward his captive, denying the man’s final request to pray. Abdawi wielded a knife and taunted his victim by showing him how dull the blade was before decapitating him. The video footage was allegedly found on a mobile phone of a captured IS fighter and was subsequently uploaded to social media.

“He is not our son anymore,” Abdawi’s family told the media and their neighbors. “We forsake him and denounce his crimes.”

Najah Abdawi, Khalid’s sister, says her family reproached Khalid Badawi for his actions via his Facebook page and told him never to contact them again. “We considered him dead the moment he left for Syria,” she said, saying the family was devastated by their son’s deeds. “Why do people blame us for a crime we have not committed?”

A family’s lost sons

Abdawi secretly travelled to Syria in January 2013— his family believes that he had help and encouragement. The family had travel documents and online exchanges and suspicions about their son’s plans, which it did not disclose at the time because they had decided to turn their backs on him. They had not heard from him for a while so they assumed he died in Syria.

In IS Adawai was known as Abu Haidara and in the video he appears to be a group leader, disciplining other members.

After a long absence, Abdawi appeared on his Facebook page to tell his family that he was still alive. They begged him to come back, but in vain.

Abdawi’s twin brother Walid also contacted Abdawi via social media and instead of convincing his twin to return, Walid was also lured by jihad. The Abdawi family does not know what prevented the police chief from confiscating Walid’s computer and stopping him from traveling, despite Abdulqadir Abdawi’s— father of the twins—alarming the police. Walid was eventually killed in late December 2014, while fighting in Libya.

Disowning Khalid

The Adawai family still has pictures of Khalid attending the activities of an Ennahda youth conference and meeting with high-level members, including Sadek Chourou – a member of the Constituent Assembly for the Ennahda – in the latter’s house, and the son of Ali Laarayedh, Minister of Interior then the Prime Minister from 2011 to 2014. The family had not been thrilled about his involvement of the moderate Islamist political party but they could never have imagined how innocuous those pictures would seem in comparison to the ones Khalid took of himself in Syria, with light and heavy weapons and also with his victims.

The last conversation with Khalid, says his brother-in-law, was on March 11. Two days later, his family heard news of their son’s death in a battle against President Bashar Assad’s regime. The news was posted on the Facebook page of Hamza Halabi. Two days later, the family found out that their son’s Facebook account was changed to Hamza Halabi’s.  Khalid’s brother-in-law suspects that Khalid might have changed his identity on Facebook, in reaction to his family’s response to his membership in IS.

Naja, his sister, has strong evidence of the involvement of certain individuals and some Facebook accounts in facilitating the travel of her two brothers. The family indeed submitted these pieces of evidence, including photos and Facebook accounts, to the security apparatus but it was not cooperative, they said.

After six months of complaints to relatives of other young men who travelled to Syria, 20 young men from Oueslatia were arrested, 13 of whom were released a week later having been investigated and referred to the investigating judge.  Video footage featuring IS slaughtering captives have  become more frequent.

Khalid’s family does not know for sure whether or not their son is still alive. Regardless, they have disassociated themselves from him. “He is not our son anymore; for us, he is dead.”