presumed member of the cell specializing in the capture, torture and execution of Western hostages of the terrorist group, Aine Lesley Davis was arrested Wednesday evening by the British police.
Le Monde with AFP
One of the alleged members of a group of kidnappers from the Islamic State (IS) Organization, called the “Beatles” and specialized in the capture, torture and execution of Western hostages, must appear on Thursday Before British justice, just after his arrest on British soil.
Arrested at London airport in Luton on Wednesday evening from Turkey, Aine Leslie Davis, 38, is to be presented to justice in front of the Westminster Magistrates runs Thursday in the morning, the London police said. He was charged with offenses relating to the financing of terrorist activities dating back to 2014 and possession of a firearm dating back to 2013-2014 “for purposes related to terrorism,” said a prosecutor’s spokesperson. >
According to the British anti -terrorist prosecution, the man was expelled by the Turkish authorities. Under an arrest warrant issued in January 2015 by British justice, he had been arrested in Turkey in November 2015. He had since been imprisoned in the context of his conviction by a local court at seven and a half of Prison for terrorist offenses.
kidnappings, torture and assassinations
The four members of the “Beatles”, where Davis would be “Paul”, and thus nicknamed by their hostages because of their British accent, are accused of having removed at least 27 journalists and humanitarian workers from the United States, of the United Kingdom, Europe, New Zealand, Russia and Japan.
They are also suspected of having tortured and killed, by decapitation, American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, as well as humanitarian workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller. IS had broadcast propaganda videos showing their executions on social networks.
The best known of the group, Mohamed Emwazi, alias “Jihadi John”, was killed by an American drone in Syria in 2015. The other two jihadists of this cell, Alexanda Kotey (38, “Ringo”) and El -Shafee El-Sheikh (34, “George”), former British nationals, were arrested in January 2018 by a Kurdish militia in Syria and given to the American forces in Iraq before being sent to the United Kingdom.
They were finally extradited in 2020 in the United States, Virginia, for accusations of hostage-taking, conspiracy to kill American citizens and support for a foreign terrorist organization. In April, Mr. Kotey pleaded guilty for his involvement in the kidnapping and death of the four American hostages and was sentenced to life imprisonment. El-Shafee El-Sheikh was also found guilty. He faces life imprisonment, and will know his sentence next week.
“They considered themselves the special forces of the caliphate”
In 2014, the wife of Aine Leslie Davis, Amal El-Wahabi, had become the first person in the United Kingdom to be sentenced for having financed IS jihadists for trying to send 20,000 euros to Her husband in Syria. During her trial, at the end of which she was imprisoned for twenty-eight months, her husband had been portrayed as a drug trafficker before her departure for Syria.
The “Beatles” had acquired a solid reputation for cruelty, synonymous with prestige in the ranks of IS. “They considered themselves the special forces of the caliphate,” said French-Presse at the end of 2020 the Frenchman Nicolas Hénin, held hostage by the four men between June 2013 and April 2014. He described “a great arrogance, A level of conviction and contempt for the facts and a detachment in relation to the violence which was quite amazing “.
According to the former French journalist, who has become a consultant in anti -terrorism, the credit of their nickname, who is “hostage survival reflex”, returns to John Cantlie, war correspondent and “big lover of rock ” N’roll “.