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‘Jihadi George took half in brutal hostage-taking scheme’: Briton goes on trial accused of being member of ‘ISIS Beatles’ torture squad that beheaded journalists and help employees
- El Shafee Elsheikh, 33, is accused of belonging to a cell known as ‘The ISIS Beatles’
- The Briton is on trial for allegedly being a pacesetter in a ‘hostage-taking scheme’
- Journalists and help employees had been amongst these focused and killed by the group
A Briton accused of being a member of the torture and homicide squad generally known as ‘The ISIS Beatles’ lastly went on trial in America yesterday.
El Shafee Elsheikh is accused of participating in a ‘brutal hostage-taking scheme’ by which journalists and help employees had been kidnapped and beheaded.
The court docket in Virginia heard that Elsheikh, from west London, performed a central position within the operation in Syria and subjected the victims to ‘unrelenting’ torture. He has been described as essentially the most brutal member of the gang and the chief guard of hostages.
Those that weren’t launched had been murdered by one other Briton – Mohammed Emwazi, dubbed ‘Jihadi John’ – in propaganda movies posted on-line.
El Shafee Elsheikh, 33, is accused of being considered one of 4 ISIS militants belonging to a cell that operated in Iraq and Syria, which members had been nicknamed ‘the Beatles’ for his or her British accents
Among the many 26 victims the group captured or killed was Alan Henning, 47, a Manchester cabbie who was working as a humanitarian employee when he was murdered in 2014.
David Haines, 44, a former RAF employee from Perth in Scotland who was additionally doing help work, was beheaded a month earlier. In court docket among the many grieving family members was his daughter Bethany, 24, who was 17 when he was executed. She shook her head in disgust when Elsheikh, mentioned to be the ‘George’ of the phobia group, walked in.
The 33-year-old was captured in Syria in 2018 and later transferred to the US to face trial. Britain agreed to assist the prosecution as soon as Washington mentioned it will not search the loss of life penalty.
John Gibbs, prosecuting, advised the jury the gang, dubbed ‘The Beatles’ due to their British accents, had been ‘completely terrifying’. The bodily abuse they dished out was ‘unrelenting and unpredictable’ they usually ‘appeared to get satisfaction from bodily abusing the hostages’.
Alan Henning (pictured) was beheaded by the group in 2014 whereas working as a humanitarian employee
Fellow help employee David Haines (pictured) was additionally killed in 2014 by the torture and homicide squad
Elsheikh was born in Sudan however moved to Britain as a toddler, the court docket was advised. He grew to become disillusioned with the West and travelled to Syria to hitch Islamic State. There he met up with Emwazi and 38-year-old Alexanda Kotey, two outdated mates from London.
Alexanda Kotey (left) and El Shafee Elsheikh
Elsheikh is on trial for – and denies – the kidnapping and killing of 4 People between 2012 and 2015.
Kotey has pleaded responsible to eight expenses and is more likely to be transferred to a jail within the UK after 15 years. The fourth alleged member of the gang, Aine Davis, 37, was jailed in Turkey in 2017 for terrorism offences. Emwazi, 27, was killed in a drone strike in 2015.
Edward MacMahon, defending, mentioned that Elsheikh was ‘a easy IS fighter’ and was not ‘a member of The Beatles and never concerned within the kidnapping, torture and deaths of any of those people’.
The trial, which is scheduled to final 4 weeks, continues.
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