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A source was quoted as saying: “There is no official product on this yet for the intelligence community, but people who are out there and collecting on this believe the [Foley] abduction and the [Islam] trial are connected.”

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Shajul Islam, 28, and a second man, Jubayer Chowdhury, 24, who was also charged and cleared of kidnapping, are the only British jihadists charged with kidnapping westerners in Syria.

Investigators are now trying to establish whether the two men from Stratford, east London, may have information about the identity of Mr. Foley’s killer. Shajul Islam, who worked as a doctor at St. Bart’s hospital, is currently suspended from practising medicine.

He had always protested his innocence, saying he went to Syria to use his medical skills to treat victims of the civil war.

On Thursday night, his family told a reporter it was a “sensitive time” for the family and declined to comment on the brothers’ role in the investigation.

A woman in a burqa who answered the door at the family home said when asked the whereabouts of her sons: “We don’t know where they are. We don’t want to talk to you.”

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Investigators will also be keen to rule out Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, 23, a former rapper from Maida Vale, west London, who went to Syria last year and later tweeted a picture of himself holding up a severed head. He has a similar accent to the man who killed Mr. Foley, and has a similar build and skin tone.

A third suspect is Aine Davis, 30, from Hammersmith, west London, a former drug dealer and gang member who converted to Islam and flew to Syria to wage jihad. His family refused to comment last night.

Richard Barratt, the former director of counter-terrorism at the Secret Intelligence Service, said he was confident the hooded killer would be identified.

He said of Mr. Foley’s killer: “They will be able to identify him … I think the community will be able recognize this person and I am sure many in the community will be keen to do so, the intelligence community certainly but also the community from which this man comes.

“I don’t think anyone is prepared to forget this sort of crime and therefore the long arm of justice will eventually catch him.”