A member of the infamous ISIS kidnap-and-murder cell referred to as the “Beatles” is to be sentenced in a US courtroom on Friday for the deaths of 4 American hostages in Syria.
El Shafee Elsheikh, 34, faces a compulsory sentence of life in jail after being convicted in Alexandria, Virginia, in April of hostage-taking, conspiracy to homicide US residents and supporting a terrorist group.
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The grueling two-week trial of the previous British nationwide, which featured emotional testimony from former hostages and oldsters of the victims, was probably the most important prosecution of an ISIS extremist in the US.
On this March 30, 2019, file photograph, Alexanda Amon Kotey, left, and El Shafee Elsheikh, who had been allegedly amongst 4 British militants who made up a brutal ISIS cell dubbed The Beatles, communicate throughout an interview with The Related Press at a safety heart in Kobani, Syria. (AP)
The 12-person federal jury deliberated for lower than six hours over two days earlier than discovering Elsheikh responsible for his position within the deaths of 4 People — journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and support staff Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller.
Elsheikh and one other former “Beatle,” Alexanda Amon Kotey, had been captured by a Kurdish militia in Syria in January 2018 and handed over to US forces in Iraq.
They had been flown to the US in 2020 to face trial.
Kotey, 38, pleaded responsible in September 2021 and was sentenced to life in jail in April by US District Courtroom Decide T.S. Ellis, who can even ship the sentence on Friday towards Elsheikh.
One other alleged “Beatle,” Aine Davis, 38, was deported to Britain final week from Turkey and was remanded in custody on terrorism expenses.
The fourth “Beatle,” executioner Mohammed Emwazi, was killed by a US drone in Syria in 2015.
The hostage-takers, who grew up and had been radicalized in London, had been nicknamed the “Beatles” by their captives due to their distinctive British accents.
Energetic in Syria from 2012 to 2015, they’re accused of abducting greater than two dozen journalists and reduction staff from the US and different international locations.
Ten former European and Syrian hostages testified at Elsheikh’s trial accusing the “Beatles” of months of brutal therapy together with beatings, electrical shocks, waterboarding and mock executions.
Foley, Sotloff and Kassig had been beheaded by Emwazi, and movies of their deaths had been launched by IS for propaganda functions.
Mueller was initially held by the “Beatles” however was later turned over to ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who reportedly raped her repeatedly.
ISIS introduced Mueller’s dying in February 2015. The group mentioned she was killed in a Jordanian airstrike, a declare disputed by US authorities.
Baghdadi died throughout a US particular forces raid in 2019.
Forward of Elsheikh’s sentencing, British police revealed particulars on Wednesday of the years-long effort to determine the hostage-takers and produce them to justice.
Richard Smith, the top of London police’s counter-terrorism unit, in contrast it to “placing collectively very small items of a jigsaw” and following a “path of breadcrumbs.”
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