Two Islamic State militants from Britain had been dropped at the United States on Wednesday to face prices in a ugly marketing campaign of torture, beheadings and different acts of violence towards 4 Individuals and others captured and held hostage in Syria, the Justice Division stated.
El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey are two of 4 males who had been known as “the Beatles” by the hostages due to the captors’ British accents. The 2 males had been anticipated to make their first look Wednesday afternoon in federal court docket in Alexandria, Virginia, the place a federal grand jury issued an eight-count indictment that accuses them of being “main contributors in a brutal hostage-taking scheme” that resulted within the deaths of Western hostages, together with American journalist James Foley.
The costs are a milestone in a years-long effort by U.S. authorities to deliver to justice members of the group identified for beheadings and barbaric remedy of help staff, journalists and different hostages in Syria.
Startling for his or her unflinching depictions of cruelty and violence, recordings of the murders had been launched on-line within the type of propaganda for a bunch that at its peak managed huge swaths of Syria and Iraq.
The case underscores the Justice Division’s dedication to prosecuting in American civilian court docket militants captured abroad, stated Assistant Lawyer Normal John Demers. He stated different extremists “can be pursued to the ends of the earth.”
The defendants’ arrival within the U.S. units the stage for arguably probably the most sensational terrorism trial because the 2014 prison case towards the suspected ringleader of a lethal assault on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.
“You probably have American blood in your veins or American blood in your palms, you’ll face American justice,” Demers, the division’s high nationwide safety official, stated at a information convention saying the costs.
The boys are charged in reference to the deaths of 4 American hostages — Foley, journalist Steven Sotloff and help staff Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller — in addition to British and Japanese nationals who had been additionally held captive.
The pair face prices of hostage-taking leading to dying and different terrorism-related counts. Due to a latest concession by the Justice Division, prosecutors won’t be in search of the dying penalty.
The indictment describes Kotey and Elsheikh, each of whom prosecutors say radicalized in London and set off for Syria in 2012, as “main contributors in a brutal hostage-taking scheme” that focused American and European residents and that concerned murders, mock executions, shocks with electrical tasers, bodily restraints and different brutal acts.
The State Division declared Elsheikh and Kotey as specifically designated international terrorists in 2017 and accused them of holding captive and beheading roughly two dozen hostages.
Prosecutors say the lads labored intently with a chief spokesman for IS who reported to the group’s chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed in a U.S. navy operation final yr. They had been joined within the “Beatles” by Mohammed Emwazi, who was killed in a 2015 drone strike and was also referred to as “Jihadi John” after showing and talking within the movies of a number of executions, together with Foley’s. A fourth member, Aine Lesley Davis, was sentenced to seven years in jail in Turkey in 2017.
The indictment accuses Kotey and Elsheikh of taking part in Foley’s 2012 kidnapping and of supervising detention amenities for hostages, “along with partaking in a protracted sample of bodily and psychological violence.”
In addition they co-ordinated ransom negotiations over e-mail, saying the discharge of the hostages had been conditioned on giant sums of cash or different concessions. In interviews whereas in detention, the 2 males admitted they helped gather e-mail addresses from Mueller that may very well be used to ship out ransom calls for. Mueller was killed in 2015 after 18 months in IS captivity.
In July 2014, based on the indictment, Elsheikh described to a member of the family his participation in an IS assault on the Syrian Military. He despatched the member of the family photographs of decapitated heads and stated in a voice message, “There’s many heads, that is only a couple that I took a photograph of.”
The indictment describes the execution of a Syrian prisoner in 2014 that the 2 compelled their Western hostages to observe. Kotey instructed the hostages to kneel whereas watching the execution and holding indicators pleading for his or her launch. Emwazi shot the prisoner at the back of the pinnacle whereas Elsheikh videotaped the execution. Elsheikh instructed one of many hostages, “you’re subsequent,” prosecutors say.
The 24-page indictment doesn’t spell out any particular position for Kotey and Elsheikh in any of the executions of the 4 Individuals. However G. Zachary Terwilliger, the U.S. legal professional for the Japanese District of Virginia, whose workplace will prosecute the case, stated underneath U.S. legislation Elsheikh and Kotey can “be held answerable for the foreseeable acts of their co-conspirators.”
Kin of the 4 slain Individuals praised the Justice Division for transferring the lads to the U.S. for trial, saying the switch “would be the first step within the pursuit of justice for the alleged horrific human rights crimes towards these 4 younger Individuals.”
“We’re hopeful that the U.S. authorities will lastly be capable of ship the necessary message that for those who hurt Individuals, you’ll by no means escape justice. And when you find yourself caught, you’ll face the complete energy of American legislation,” the assertion stated.
Elsheikh and Kotey have been held since October 2019 in American navy custody after being captured in Syria one yr earlier by the U.S.-based Syrian Democratic Forces.
The Justice Division has lengthy needed to place them on trial, however these efforts had been difficult by wrangling over whether or not Britain, which doesn’t have the dying penalty, would share proof that may very well be utilized in a dying penalty prosecution.
Lawyer Normal William Barr broke the diplomatic standoff this yr when he promised the lads wouldn’t face the dying penalty. That prompted British authorities to share proof that U.S. prosecutors deemed essential for acquiring convictions.
© 2020 The Canadian Press
