He could be sentenced to life in prison for the murders of four Americans
THE El Shafi El Sheikha member of the so-called core “Beatles”a group specializing in the kidnapping, torture and gruesome murders of Western hostages in the ranks of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist organization, is expected to learn today what sentence will be imposed on him by a US court.
He could be sentenced to life in prison for the murders of four Americans.
The 34-year-old was arrested by Syrian Kurdish forces in 2018. He was found guilty by a jury in April after a harrowing trial that exposed the Beatles’ sadism.
The 12-member jury deliberated less than six hours over two days before finding him guilty of his role in the murders of four US citizens.
The victims were journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid workers Peter Cussing and Kayla Miller.
El Shafi El Sheikh was arrested at the same time as another alleged member of the Beatles core, Alexander Coty, a former British citizen, 38.
The two men surrendered to the US forces in Iraq and eventually arrived in the US in 2020 to be brought to justice.
Alexandra Coty pleaded guilty in September 2021 and was sentenced to life in prison by Judge TS Ellis, who will also sentence El Shafi El Sheikh later today.
Another alleged Beatles member, Ein Davies, 38, heard terrorism charges against him and was brought before a judge in London where he was arrested after being deported from Turkey.
The most notorious member of this cell, Mohammed Emwazi, or “Jihadi John”, was killed in a US drone strike in Syria in 2015. He had appeared in several IS propaganda videos showing beheadings.
Painful trial
The four members of The Beatles, who were based in Syria from 2012 to 2015 after being radicalized in London, are accused of overseeing the kidnapping of at least 27 journalists and aid workers from the US, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, New Zealand, Russia and Japan.
The nickname “The Beatles” had been given to them by Western hostages, because of their British accent.
The group became infamous for directing and filming hostage execution scenes in the terror group’s excruciating propaganda videos.
At the trial of El Shafi El Sheikh, ten former hostages from Europe and Syria described the brutalities they suffered at the hands of the “Beatles”: dousing them with water to make them feel like drowning, electric shocks, mock executions…
This week, British police revealed that it took 10 years to compile the Beatles dossier, a “puzzle of very small pieces”.
“We followed the path shown to us by very small crumbs, fragments (…) of a gigantic amount of other research“, the head of the counter-terrorism service of the London police, Richard Smith, told reporters on Wednesday.
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