By Chris King • Updated: 19 Aug 2022 • 19:44
Islamic State 'Beatle' sentenced to life imprisonment in the US
El Shafee Elsheikh, a 33-year-old member of an Islamic State cell nicknamed ‘The Beatles’, has been sentenced today, Friday, August 19, to life in prison by a U.S. federal court, according to the BNN Newsroom. The terrorist was handed eight life sentences by US District Court judge TS Ellis in a Virginia court.
He was found guilty back in April of being complicit in a hostage-taking plot that led to the beheadings of three Americans, two British aid workers, and two Japanese men in Syria.
https://twitter.com/BNNBreaking/status/1560663172498919424?s=20&t=lW9cZP6Xe0vy-eMYJCpl0Q
After a six-week trial, and countless hours of deliberation, a federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia, found London-raised Jordanian national Elsheikh guilty of charges including belonging to an Islamic State terror cell, lethal hostage-taking, and conspiracy to commit the murder of four American hostages in Syria and Iraq.
As reported by US officials, the beheadings in 2014 of journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley were videotaped. The same occurred with the beheading of aid worker Peter Kassig. Kayla Mueller was confirmed to have died in Syria in 2015. It is alleged that she had been repeatedly raped by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the group’s leader.
The Jordanian, who had British citizenship which had been revoked in 2018, faced a possible death sentence but prosecutors chose not to request that decision.
Earlier this year, Alexanda Kotey, another member of the same ISIS cell, had been flown from a jail in Iraq to stand trial in America. After pleading guilty to the murders of the aforementioned hostages, Kotey was subsequently sentenced to life by a judge.
Mohammed Emwazi, a third member of the terror cell died in 2015 in Syria after a British-US missile strike.
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Originally from Wales, Chris spent years on the Costa del Sol before moving to the Algarve where he is a web reporter for The Euro Weekly News covering international and Spanish national news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com
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