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Federico Motka’s abductors greeted him in English after he and his colleagues have been kidnapped close to a refugee camp on the Turkish border: “Welcome to Syria, you mutt.”
For the Italian help employee, it was the start of 14 months of brutality by the hands of the Islamic State.
Motka testified concerning the ordeal Thursday on the terrorism trial of El Shafee Elsheikh, a British nationwide charged with taking a number one function in an Islamic State kidnapping scheme that took greater than 20 Westerners hostage between 2012 and 2015.
4 Individuals — journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and help employees Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller — have been amongst them. Foley, Sotloff and Kassig have been decapitated. Mueller was pressured into slavery and raped repeatedly by the Islamic State’s chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, earlier than she was additionally killed.
Motka is the primary surviving hostage to testify at Elsheikh’s trial in Alexandria, Virginia.
Born in Trieste, Italy, Motka mentioned he spent a lot of his childhood within the Center East and went to boarding faculty in England. He was an help employee surveying the wants of refugee camps in March 2013 when he and a British colleague, David Haines, have been captured and brought hostage.
Motka testified that for the primary month of captivity, he was solely sometimes mistreated, however that mistreatment often got here by the hands of three captors whom hostages dubbed “the Beatles” due to their British accents. They realized to talk surreptitiously about their captors, who wore masks and took pains to hide their id, since they by no means knew what would set them off. A dispute over lavatory hygiene prompted a very intense beating, he mentioned.
“They mentioned I used to be a ‘posh wanker’ as a result of I went to boarding faculty,” Motka testified. “They mentioned I used to be smug, they usually have been going to take me down a peg.”
Motka’s use of the time period “posh wanker” set off a quick interval of uncomfortable laughter within the courtroom, when the choose interrupted and requested what the phrase means, forcing Motka to elucidate the time period’s vulgar which means of the British idiom.
The British accents and phrasing are an vital a part of the case, although, as prosecutors search to show that Elsheikh is certainly one of many Beatles who tortured hostages, though the Beatles took nice pains to hide their faces. Motka testified that there have been a minimum of three Britons within the group of captors, and the hostages nicknamed them “John,” “George” and “Ringo.”
Prosecutors have mentioned in court docket that Elshiekh is the one who was nicknamed Ringo.
A technique Motka distinguished the three was their preferences for inflicting punishment.
“George was extra into boxing,” Motka testified. “John, he kicked so much. Ringo used to speak how he favored wrestling. He would put folks in headlocks.”
He described one occasion when Ringo put James Foley in a headlock so tight that he handed out.
Motka additionally recounted a time in the summertime of 2013 when the hostages have been held in a facility they nicknamed “the field.” The Beatles put Motka and his cellmate David Haines in a room with Foley and British hostage John Cantlie for what they known as a “Royal Rumble.”
“They have been tremendous enthusiastic about it,” Motka mentioned of the Beatles concerning the tag-team fashion combat they imposed on the foursome. “We have been so weak and shattered we may barely elevate our arms.”
The group was advised that the losers can be waterboarded. Two of the 4 handed out throughout the hour-long battle, Motka mentioned. The Beatles had deemed him the loser however by no means waterboarded him, beating him as a substitute.
As they have been transferred to completely different amenities, Motka mentioned the hostages have been typically separated from the Beatles for weeks at a time. These durations have been welcome, comparatively talking, as a result of the Beatles have been distinctive of their cruelty, he mentioned.
Once they have been transferred once more to a spot they nicknamed “the dungeon” and noticed that the Beatles have been there, “we crapped our pants,” Motka mentioned. “We had simply began to chill out a bit” because the mistreatment had eased of their absence.
“The field,” the place the Beatles have been an everyday presence, was one of many worst stretches of captivity. Motka mentioned he and different hostages there endured a prolonged “regime of punishment” that included common beatings and compelled stress positions. “George,” one other man named Abu Mohamed and a 3rd nicknamed “the punisher” recurrently tortured them, Motka mentioned.
“They performed a number of video games with us,” Motka mentioned, sustaining composure as he clearly struggled with the feelings of describing his captivity. “They gave us canine names. We would have liked to return and instantly reply” to the canine identify to keep away from a beating.
Motka was not launched till Might 25, 2014. His 14 months in captivity have been the longest of any hostage within the group.
Protection attorneys, although, have highlighted the difficulties that hostages have in formally figuring out every of their captors, who routinely wore masks that coated all however their eyes.
In opening statements, prosecutors referenced solely three British nationals — Elsheikh, his longtime good friend Alexenda Kotey, and Mohammed Emwazi, who often carried out the function of executioner and was often known as “Jihadi John.”
Emwazi was killed in a drone strike, and Kotey was captured alongside Elsheikh and in addition delivered to Virginia to face trial. Kotey pleaded responsible final yr in a plea discount that requires a life sentence.
Jurors additionally heard testimony Thursday from Danish hostage negotiator Jens Serup, who testified about extended efforts to safe the discharge of Daniel Rye Ottosen in trade for two million euros.
The jury noticed images of giant bruises on Ottosen’s arm and again after he was lastly launched. Serup testified that the captors advised Ottosen the beating was a “farewell current to not overlook them.”
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