[ad_1]
A MEMBER of the barbaric IS Beatles cell that kidnapped, tortured and beheaded Western captives has been at present jailed for all times.
Ex-British citizen El Shafee Elsheikh, 33, was convicted in April of prices that included deadly hostage-taking and conspiracy to commit homicide.
4
4
He was a part of the brutal hostage-taking gang that beheaded three Individuals, two British help employees and two Japanese males in Syria.
Elsheikh will die in jail after at present being handed eight life sentences, to run concurrently, by US District Courtroom choose TS Ellis in a Virginia court docket.
After a six-week trial in April and hours of deliberation, the jury concluded that Elsheikh was a part of an Islamic State cell, nicknamed “The Beatles” for his or her English accents, that beheaded American hostages in Iraq and Syria.
Ellis informed the court docket: “The behaviour of this defendant can solely be described as horrific, barbaric, brutal and naturally felony.”
The court docket heard horrific proof for former hostages as they informed how the gang compelled ravenous captives to battle one another.
They had been additionally subjected to repeated beatings and at occasions waterboarding, mock executions and electrical shocks.
Elsheikh, who was born in Sudan and raised in London, was accused of conspiring to kill 4 American hostages: James Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller.
Foley and Sotloff, each journalists, and Kassig, an help employee, had been killed in videotaped beheadings.
Mueller was raped repeatedly by the group’s chief on the time, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, earlier than her loss of life in Syria, US officers have mentioned.
The deaths of Foley, Sotloff and Kassig had been confirmed in 2014 whereas Mueller’s loss of life was confirmed in early 2015.
Elsheikh tried to defend himself by saying he was “a easy ISIS fighter” and never a part of the gang – however this was firmly rejected by the jury.
Following the sentencing, Foley’s mom Diane mentioned: “Let this sentencing clarify to all who dare to kidnap, torture or kill any American citizen overseas that US justice will discover you wherever you might be, and that our authorities will maintain you accountable in your crimes towards our residents.”
The costs towards Elsheikh, whose British citizenship was withdrawn in 2018, carried a possible loss of life sentence, however US prosecutors had beforehand suggested British officers that they’d not search the loss of life penalty.
Prosecutors argued {that a} life sentence was wanted to forestall Elsheikh from inflicting future hurt and to set a precedent that such crimes will get strict punishment.
One other cell member, Alexanda Kotey, was sentenced to life in jail by a US choose earlier this yr.
Kotey was held in Iraq by the US army earlier than being flown to the US to face trial. He pleaded responsible final September to the murders of Foley, Sotloff, Kassig and Mueller.
A 3rd member of the group, Mohammed Emwazi, died in a US-British missile strike in Syria in 2015.
Some former hostages, launched by the cell after protracted negotiations, testified throughout trials in regards to the torture they endured. Relations of these killed additionally testified.
On the peak of its energy from 2014-2017, Islamic State dominated over tens of millions of individuals and claimed duty for or impressed assaults in dozens of cities world wide.
Its chief, al-Baghdadi, declared a caliphate over 1 / 4 of Iraq and Syria in 2014, earlier than he was killed in a raid by US particular forces in Syria in 2019 because the group’s rule collapsed.
4
4
[ad_2]
Source link
