Jacob el-Ali, 29, who left Denmark to join the Islamist cause in the Middle East and has been wanted since 2014, has expressed regret and is admittedly ready to return for a "fair trial" in the Scandinavian country, the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten reported.
Previously, el-Ali published photos of himself on Facebook posing with a gun and hand grenades amid severed heads and bloody corpses in the Syrian city of Raqqa. On his belt, the emblem of Daesh* was visible, according to the Danish daily.
In an interview with Radio24syv, el-Ali claimed to be suffering from remorse and asked for an opportunity to return via Turkey.
"I have talked to the Danish authorities about returning home; I have called the Danish police. I have talked to my lawyer about it; I have called the Danish embassy and there is not really anyone who will help. What they actually say to us is that we just have to stay here and die," el-Ali said about himself and fellow Danish jihadis.
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By his own admission, el-Ali has lost his passport. He said wanted to be arrested in Turkey, so that he could be extradited to Denmark. The Turkish police, however, reportedly rejected him and sent him back to Syria.
"It's a little bit bizarre that a Danish citizen is in need, but is praying for the Turkish authorities to arrest him," el-Ali's defender Mette Grith Stage said. Grith Stage found it "worrying" that Danish authorities and politicians would rather have a terrorist on the loose in Syria than judged in Denmark. "He is still a Danish citizen, and if he has done something wrong, he must return home to Denmark and be held responsible for it and serve a sentence."
Neither the Copenhagen Police, nor Justice Minister Søren Pape Poulsen of the Conservative Party has commented on the case. The Foreign Ministry stated, without referring to this particular case, that one generally tries to help all Danish citizens in dealing with problems at Danish embassies or consulates abroad.
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The case of Jacob el-Ali is the second of its kind over a short period of time. Last week it was established that Ahmed el-Haj, a 26-year-old Danish citizen, who previously appeared in an Islamist video featuring portraits of former Prime Minister and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Conservative politician Naser Khader shot as "enemies of Islam," has signaled his desire to return home from a Turkish prison.
The very same Naser Khader recently penned an opinion piece in Jyllands-Posten, where he claimed that jihadists are unwanted in Denmark.
"I do not understand why we need resources to pick up a national traitor and expose ourselves to a risk of future terrorist attacks," Khader wrote.
In recent years, Denmark has contributed to the jihadist cause with around 150 "foreign fighters." Previously, Copenhagen had made it clear that these "foreign fighters" are not welcome back in Denmark and even tried revoking their citizenship.
READ MORE: Denmark Debuts Citizenship Revocation for Daesh Supporters
* Daesh (ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist organization banned in Russia.