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A British photojournalist who was captured by the Islamic State pleaded with western governments to pay a $100 million ransom for him and 5 different hostages.
John Cantlie advised his family members in a letter smuggled out of Syria that he feared being murdered by the so-called ISIS Beatles gang if the cash was not delivered.
He wrote that the US and British governments have been ‘probably the most hated’ by the terrorist group, and that was why the requested ransom was so massive.
The letter from Cantlie, who’s the one prisoner held captive by the Beatles whose destiny remains to be unknown, was launched following the conviction of l Shafee Elsheikh in the USA on Thursday.
In being convicted, he turned the final member of the four-man gang to be delivered to justice, after the opposite three have been both additionally convicted or killed.
Cantlie’s handwritten notice was secretly delivered to his girlfriend in London, and was launched as half of a giant cache of paperwork referring to Elsheikh’s trial which painted a clearer image of the situations suffered by the Beatles’ prisoners.
In accordance with The Instances, it had been smuggled out of Syria by Italian help employee Federico Motka, who was freed by the infamous gang in 2014, simply weeks earlier than the Beatles started beheading their hostages on digital camera.
British photojournalist John Cantlie (pictured proper) advised his family members in a letter smuggled out of Syria that he feared being murdered by the so-called Isis Beatles gang if the cash was not delivered. He’s the solely prisoner held captive by the Beatles whose destiny remains to be unknown
In accordance with The Instances , the handwritten notice (pictured) was smuggled out of Syria by Italian help employee Federico Motka, who was freed by the infamous gang in 2014, simply weeks earlier than the Beatles started beheading their hostages on digital camera
In contrast to two different British hostages – help employees Alan Henning and David Haines – Mr Cantlie was not murdered by Mohammed Emwazi (who turned referred to as Jihadi John) on digital camera.
The letter reads: ‘For the six British and American prisoners the group are demanding a complete of £100 million. This features a seventh prisoner, an American feminine known as Kayla Mueller, who will probably be included within the bundle of $100 million if 5 million is just not paid for her inside one month or [name] is just not launched from American jail.
‘The British and American governments are probably the most hated by this group and due to this fact they’re demanding probably the most for us. The quantity is extraordinarily excessive however it’s the solely approach the [prisoners] will ever be launched.
‘Within the cash is now discovered, we are going to stay prisoners right here till we die, both by pure causes or
‘Didier François recognized all concerning the state of affairs lease with him on this matter. We’re all so sorry to place you on this very tough state of affairs. We love all our households and pray you might be all holding up on this state of affairs.’
Kayla Mueller – an American help employee – was ultimately murdered by the Beatles, whereas Didier François, a French journalist, was launched in 2014.
The final public sighting of Mr Cantlie – who transformed to Islam throughout his captivity – was in a 2016 video however a Kurdish official mentioned in 2019 that he was nonetheless believed to be in Syria. He has by no means been discovered.
Mr Cantlie’s expertise as a journalist have been exploited by ISIS in an try to lend credibility to propaganda movies.
Pictured: A picture shared throughout the trial reveals shackles on the ground of a jail cell
In a video which emerged in March 2016, a thin-looking Cantlie was seen talking concerning the bombing of Mosul College in Iraq.
In 2014 he appeared in one other video sporting an orange prisoner jumpsuit and revealing how prisoners have been waterboarded for attempting to flee.
He additionally learn out purported emails between IS and the households of American captives who complained about Washington’s refusal to barter their launch.
Mr Cantlie had labored for a number of publications, together with The Sunday Instances, The Solar and The Sunday Telegraph.
He was captured in July 2012 however rescued by members of the Free Syrian Military, solely to be kidnapped once more later that 12 months.
A freed ISIS prisoner mentioned he suffered ‘weeks and weeks’ of torture after he tried to flee his terrorist prisoners.
Fellow captive Javier Espinosa, a Spanish journalist, mentioned Mr Foley had escaped from a room however waited for Mr Cantlie moderately than run for freedom himself.
On Thursday, Elsheikh for his function in an Islamic State group hostage-taking scheme that took roughly two dozen Westerners captive a decade in the past, ensuing within the deaths of 4 Individuals, three of whom have been beheaded.
El Shafee Elsheikh (pictured) on Thursday turned the final remaining member of the twisted Islamic State ‘Beatles’ group to be delivered to justice as he was lastly jailed – watched by the households of these he helped homicide
In convicting the British nationwide, the jury concluded that he was one of many infamous ‘Beatles,’ Islamic State captors nicknamed for his or her accents and recognized for his or her cruelty – torturing and beating prisoners, forcing them to battle one another till they collapsed and even making them sing merciless track parodies.
Surviving hostages testified that the Beatles delighted themselves rewriting ‘Lodge California’ as ‘Lodge Osama’ and making them sing the chorus ‘You’ll by no means depart.’
The responsible discovering got here regardless that not one of the surviving hostages might establish Elsheikh as certainly one of their captors. Though the Beatles had distinctive accents, they at all times took nice care to cover their faces behind masks and ordered hostages to keep away from eye contact or threat a beating.
Prosecutors prompt in opening statements that Elsheikh was the Beatle nicknamed ‘Ringo’ however solely needed to show that Elshiekh was one of many Beatles as a result of testimony confirmed that each one three have been main gamers within the scheme.
Elsheikh, who was captured by the Kurdish-led Syrian protection Forces in 2018, ultimately confessed his function within the scheme to interrogators in addition to media interviewers, acknowledging that he helped acquire e mail addresses and offered proof of life to the hostages’ households as a part of ransom negotiations.
However testimony confirmed that he and the opposite Beatles have been excess of paper pushers. The surviving hostages, all of whom have been European – the American and British hostages have been all killed – testified that they dreaded the Beatles’ look on the varied prisons to which they consistently shuttled and relocated.
Surviving witness Federico Motka recounted a time in the summertime of 2013 when he and cellmate David Haines have been put in a room with American hostage James Foley and British hostage John Cantlie for what they known as a ‘Royal Rumble.’ The losers have been advised they’d be waterboarded. Weak from starvation, two of the 4 handed out throughout the hourlong battle.
Elsheikh, 33 (pictured in a courtroom room sketch on April 1) and the opposite three ‘ISIS Beatles’ – so-called as a result of they have been all from the UK – are mentioned to have captured 26 hostages between 2012 and 2015 in Syria
Then-15-year-old El Shafee Elsheikh, proper, seen together with his mom and youthful brother Mahmoud, who was reportedly killed after additionally travelling to Syria
The jury deliberated for 4 hours earlier than discovering Elsheikh responsible on all counts. Elsheikh stood immobile and gave no seen response as the decision was learn. He now faces as much as a life sentence in jail.
A number of victims’ relations, who have been current all through all through the three-week trial, fought again tears because the responsible counts have been learn.
‘Reward God! I am so grateful,’ mentioned Diane Foley, the mom of James Foley, after the verdicts got here in. ‘I am so pleased with the American justice system. El Shafee Elsheikh was handled with quite a lot of mercy. He had 4 attorneys. … Hopefully we have been in a position to flip this into justice, not revenge.’
She contrasted what she mentioned was the stellar work of the prosecution with what she mentioned was the inaction of presidency to carry Foley and the opposite Individuals residence once they have been hostages.
‘Once we actually wanted to carry the complete pressure of the federal government to bear to carry them residence, that failed,’ she mentioned. ‘They have been deserted.’
Victims: Slain American James Foley masking the civil warfare in Aleppo, Syria in 2012 and US help employee Peter Kassig – in any other case referred to as Abdul-Rahman Kassig – in Syria
Victims: Left: US freelance journalist Steven Sotloff. Proper: US aide employee Kayla Mueller, 26. Each have been killed in Syria by ISIS
Alexanda Amon Kotey, left, and El Shafee Elsheikh, who have been amongst 4 British jihadis who made up a brutal Islamic State cell dubbed ‘The Beatles,’ converse throughout an interview with The Related Press at a safety middle in Kobani, Syria, Friday, March 30, 2018
She mentioned she hopes the case brings consideration to the greater than 60 Individuals who’re being held hostage or wrongly detained all over the world.
The convictions on all eight counts in U.S. District Courtroom in Alexandria revolved across the deaths of 4 American hostages: Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller. All however Mueller have been executed in videotaped beheadings circulated on-line. Mueller was compelled into slavery and raped a number of instances by Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi earlier than she was killed.
They have been amongst 26 hostages taken captive between 2012 and 2015, when the Islamic State group managed massive swaths of Iraq and Syria.
Protection legal professionals acknowledged that Elsheikh joined the Islamic State group however mentioned prosecutors didn’t show he was a Beatle. They cited an absence of readability about which Beatle was which, and again within the trial’s opening assertion cited the confusion about whether or not there have been three or 4 Beatles.
Prosecutors mentioned there have been three – Elsheikh and his buddies Alexanda Kotey and Mohammed Emwazi, who all knew one another in England earlier than becoming a member of the Islamic State. Emwazi, who as referred to as ‘Jihadi John’ and carried out the executions, was later killed in a drone strike.
Kotey and Elsheikh have been captured collectively in 2018 and delivered to Virginia in 2020 to face trial after the U.S. promised to not search the dying penalty.
Kotey pleaded responsible final 12 months in a plea discount that requires a life sentence however leaves open the chance that he might serve out his sentence in the UK after 15 years within the U.S.
Kotey will probably be formally sentenced April 29. Elsheikh will probably be sentenced Aug. 12. However on Thursday the choose within the two instances, T.S. Ellis III, ordered that Elsheikh seem at Kotey’s listening to as nicely in order that he’ll hear sufferer impression testimony that can introduced forward of Kotey’s sentencing.
The savage ISIS Beatles, together with Jihadi John ringleader who shared beheading movies on-line and killed harmless British help employees
Jihadi John
Mohammed Emwazi – Jihadi John
Emwazi was probably the most outstanding members of the so-called ISIS Beatles and was usually seen finishing up executions of their horrific beheading movies.
He took half within the barbaric beheadings of British help employees David Haines and Alan Henning and US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and US humanitarian employee Peter Kassig.
The terrorist, who was born in Kuwait and grew up in Queen’s Park, West London, was charged with 27 counts of homicide and 5 counts of hostage taking in November 2014.
He was killed in a Hellfire missile drone strike in Syria in 2015.
Jihadi Paul
Aine Lesley Davis – Paul
Davis was born Aine Leslie Junior Davis in 1984 to Fay Rodriquez, and is believed to have spent the early years of his childhood in Hammersmith, London, the place his mom lived.
He was certainly one of 13 youngsters his father had by 4 totally different ladies.
The previous tube driver, who has drug-dealing and firearms convictions to his identify, transformed to Islam whereas in jail.
In 2014 his spouse, Amal el-Wahabi, was convicted of funding terrorism after she persuaded a buddy to attempt to smuggle £16,000 ($21,000) in money in her underwear to him.
Davis was captured by Turkish safety officers in 2015 and was later discovered responsible of being a senior member of a terrorist group and was sentenced to seven and a half years in jail.
Alexanda Kotey
Alexanda Kotey – George
Kotey, 38, was born to a Ghanaian father and a Greek Cypriot mom and grew up in Shepherd’s Bush, London.
Earlier than his radicalization, he’s thought to have labored as a drug supplier earlier than changing to Islam in his early 20s.
In 2012, he left for Syria the place the US claims he was concerned in beheadings and recognized for administering ‘exceptionally merciless torture strategies’, together with digital shocks.
He’s additionally accused of appearing as an ISIS recruiter who satisfied quite a lot of different British extremists to affix the phobia group.
Kotey was captured in Syria whereas attempting to flee to Turkey in 2018 and was held in a US army middle in Iraq.
The British Authorities needed him tried within the US, the place officers consider there’s a extra reasonable probability of prosecution than within the UK.
He was extradited final 12 months and was charged with quite a lot of terror offenses. He pleaded responsible in September 2021 and was sentnced to life in jail, 15 years of which might be spent in the USA after which he could be transferred to the UK.
El Shafee Elsheikh
El Shafee Elsheikh – Ringo
Born in Sudan, Elsheikh, 33, grew up in West London and is the ultimate member of the 4 British terrorists who fled to affix ISIS.
He has been linked to the killings of quite a lot of hostages after heading to Syria to affix the extremist group.
He was captured together with Kotey once they tried to flee to Turkey in 2018 and has since been transported to the US the place he now faces expenses referring to terrorism and beheading Western hostages.
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