Four months ago, a jury found the terrorist guilty on charges that included hostage-taking, murder and conspiracy.
A member of the cell Islamic State known as the Beatles He has been sentenced by a US federal court to life in prison for his role in the kidnappings and beheadings of US journalists and aid workers. Four months ago, a jury found 33-year-old El Shafee Elsheikh guilty on charges that included hostage-taking, murder and conspiracy.
After a six-week trial in April and hours of deliberation, the jury concluded that Elsheikh was part of an Islamic State cell, nicknamed “The Beatles” for his English accent, that kidnapped hostages in Iraq and Syria, including the EL PERIÓDICO journalist Marc Marginedas. Elsheikh, born in Sudan and raised in London, was accused of plotting to kill four American hostages: James Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller.
Foley and Sotloff, both journalists, and Kassig, an aid worker, were killed in recorded beheadings on video. Mueller was repeatedly raped by the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, before her death in Syria, US officials have said. The deaths of Foley, Sotloff and Kassig were confirmed in 2014; Mueller’s, in early 2015.
The charges against Elsheikh, who had his British citizenship withdrawn in 2018, carried a possible death sentence but US prosecutors had previously warned British officials that they would not seek the death penalty.
‘The Beatles’
Another member of the cell, Alexanda Kotey, was sentenced to life in prison by a US judge earlier this year. Kotey was held in Iraq by the US Army before being transferred to the United States to stand trial. Last September he pleaded guilty to the murders of Foley, Sotloff, Kassig and Mueller.
A third member of the group, Mohammed Emwazi, was killed in a British-American missile strike in Syria in 2015.
Some former hostages, released by the cell after lengthy negotiations, testified during trials on the tortures that they suffered Family members of those killed also testified.
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At the height of its power, between 2014 and 2017, the Islamic State ruled millions of people and claimed responsibility for or inspired attacks in dozens of cities around the world.
Its leader, al-Baghdadi, declared a caliphate over a quarter of Iraq and Syria in 2014, before being killed in a US special forces raid in Syria in 2019 as the group’s dominance collapsed.