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Who is Jejoen Bontinck and where is he now?

TONIGHT (October 5) BBC Two will air part one of In The Face of Terror, a documentary looking at the lives of people affected by terrorism.

One of the perspectives looked at will be Dimitri Bontinck's, whose son disappeared to Syria.

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Father and son, Dimitri and Jejoen Bontinck

Who is Jejoen Bontinck?

Jejoen Bontinck is a Belgian man who as a teenager left Antwerp, Belgium for Syria in 2011.

He had converted to Islam, a move that was sparked by fancying a Moroccan girl according to his dad who told CNN.

After joining a group called Sharia4Belgium, he says he was swayed by his friends in the group to go to Syria during the war.

He's now aged 25 and has started a new life having a returned from Syria.

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What happened to Jejoen Bontinck?

Jejoen Bontinck left Belgium for Syria in 2011Credit: Getty Images - Getty

Jejoen has spoken about what happened to him and why he left.

Speak to BBC, he said: "You just follow like a sheep. All my friends are there, let me go too, right?"

His family initially believed he had gone to Cairo to study.

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Jejoen shared his regret on the first day of arriving in Syria, saying that he had no idea of what to expect. Jejoen later wrote a song about this experience.

He said he didn't want to use guns and "take part in that", which led to him being imprisoned for seven months within his first week of arriving.

Jejoen escaped Syria after his dad Dimitri set out to find himCredit: Getty Images - Getty

He was placed in a cell with Western journalists, some of whom are still missing or have been killed. Jejoen says he befriended them while they were in captivity.

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Jejoen managed to escape after his dad Dimitri, a former solider, set out to find him in Syria after working with a war reporter to figure out where he could be.

Dimitri told CNN he was beaten while in Syria by Jabhat al-Nusra, a group linked to al Qaeda.

On returning to Belgium, Jejoen received a suspended sentence of three years and gave evidence against the group that he had befriended but then later had him detained.

He became a witness in one of Europe's biggest terrorism trials.

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Where is Jejoen Bontinck now?

Jejoen is now in Belgium following his return from Syria.

He is building a career as a rapper under the name Ready4Jerri and has produced an album called Born Again.

He uses rapping as a platform to express his experiences.

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