El Shafee El-Sheikh, 34, had been found guilty for his role in the death of four Americans: journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff as well as humanitarian workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller.
Le Monde with AFP
One of the members of the “Beatles”, a cell of the Islamic State jihadist group (IS) specialized in the capture, torture and execution of Western hostages, was sentenced to eight prison sentences perpetuated by a US court, Friday August 19. El Shafee El-Sheikh, 34, had been found guilty, in April, for his role in the death of four Americans: journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff as well as humanitarian workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller.
The actions of El Shafee El-Sheikh were “horrible, barbarians, brutal, cruel and, of course, criminal,” said Federal Judge T.S. Ellis, while stating his decision. His lawyers made known their intention to appeal.
“This trial revealed the excruciating crimes against the human rights you have committed, said Diane Foley, the mother of journalist James Foley, eight years to the day after the ISA broadcast of the video showing his beheading . Your crimes full of hatred did not take it. “
death penalty
El Shafee El-Sheikh had been arrested at the same time as another alleged member of the “Beatles”, Alexanda Kotey, former 38-year-old British national. The two men had been given to the American forces in Iraq and sent to the United States in 2020 to be tried.
Alexanda Kotey pleaded guilty in September 2021, and was sentenced to life prison last April by the same judge, T.S. Ellis. The death penalty was excluded for the two men due to an agreement with London.
Another alleged member of the cell, Aine Davis, 38, was charged and presented to British justice last week in London after his expulsion from Turkey. The best known in the group, the British Mohammed Emwazi, alias “Jihadi John”, was killed by an American drone in Syria in 2015. He appeared in multiple videos showing throats.
The four jihadists had been nicknamed the “Beatles” by their hostages because of their British accent.
at least twenty-seven hostages
Active in Syria from 2012 to 2015, the “Beatles” supervised the detention of at least twenty-seven journalists and humanitarian workers from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Japan, New Zealand and Russia. A dozen were executed and their death had been staged in IS propaganda videos that shocked the whole world.
At the trial of El Shafee El-Sheikh, ten former European and Syrian hostages had described the atrocities that the members of this group had made them undergo, such as drowning simulations, electric shocks or simulacres of execution.
This week, British police revealed that putting on the file against the members of this cell had been related to building for ten years “a puzzle of very small pieces”.