ISIS ‘Beatle’ El Shafee Elsheikh found guilty of hostage deaths

A former Briton – known to Islamic State comrades as a ‘Beatle’ – has been was convicted over the execution of four American hostages.

James Foley’s mother Diane outside US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, ob Thursday. Picture: AFP

El Shafee Elsheikh, a member of the Islamic State kidnap-and-murder cell known as the “Beatles”, has been found guilty of all charges for the deaths of four American hostages in Syria.

A jury convicted Elsheikh, 33, a former British national, of eight counts after a two-week trial, the most significant prosecution of an ISIS member in the US.

Elsheikh was charged with hostage-taking, conspiracy to murder US citizens – journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller – and supporting a terrorist organisation.

“This is a day that we didn’t need bombs or bullets to bring justice,” said Foley’s mother Diane, who fought tirelessly to try to secure her son’s release.

“I really feel that justice prevailed.”

Mueller’s father also welcomed the guilty verdicts delivered after a trial in US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia.

“We all saw the American justice system do what it does best,” said Carl Mueller, whose wife, Marsha, testified about the fruitless negotiations with the hostage-takers, who demanded $5m ($A7.3m) in exchange for their daughter.

The 12-person jury deliberated for less than six hours over two days before rendering the verdict.

El Shafee Elsheikh. Picture: AFP

Elsheikh and another former “Beatle”, Alexanda Amon Kotey, 38, were captured by a Kurdish militia in Syria in 2018 and handed over to US forces in Iraq.

They were flown to the US in 2020 to face trial.

Kotey pleaded guilty last September and is facing life in prison.

Elsheikh, who was stripped of his citizenship by Britain, also faces a likely life sentence.

“The sentence he’s going to get is probably worse than a death sentence,” Mr Mueller said, adding he expected him to be incarcerated at the spartan prison known as “Supermax” in Colorado.

The question of identification hung heavy over Elsheikh’s trial because the “Beatles” always wore masks around hostages and would blindfold them or force them to kneel facing a wall.

Defence lawyer Nina Ginsberg argued that while Elsheikh may indeed have been an ISIS fighter and the “Beatles” were responsible for “brutal” acts, prosecutors had not proved he actually was a “Beatle”.

Besides the deaths of the US hostages, Elsheikh and the other “Beatles” are suspected of involvement in kidnapping in Syria of some 20 other journalists and relief workers from Europe, Russia and Japan.

Several of them were killed while others were released for ransoms.

The hostage-takers were dubbed the “Beatles” by their captives because of their British accents.

Foley, Sotloff and Kassig were beheaded by Mohamed Emwazi, known as “Jihadi John”, and videos of their deaths were released by ISIS.

Mueller was initially held by the “Beatles” but was later turned over to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who reportedly raped her repeatedly.

ISIS announced Mueller’s death in February 2015 and said she was killed in a Jordanian airstrike, a claim disputed by US authorities.

AFP