Al Shafi Elsheikha british Isis A fighter convicted of his involvement in a massive hostage-taking scheme that caused the deaths of British, American and Japanese hostages has been sentenced to life in prison.
Elsheikh, 34, was found guilty of eight charges, including, following a federal trial in April, death as a result of taking hostage, conspiracy to murder US citizens outside the United States and conspiracy to provide material aid to terrorists.
The Sudan-born Londoner was part of an Isis hostage-taking cell operating in Syria that his captors dubbed the Beatles. Elsheikh traveled from the UK to Syria in 2012. He first joined an ally of al-Qaeda, and then later Isis, where he played a key role in the hostage-taking operation of ISIS.
That kidnapping plan led to the murders of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and aid workers Kayla Mueller and Peter Kassig. The sentence also finds him responsible for the deaths of British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning and Japanese journalists Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto.
Judge Thomas Selby Ellis delivered the ruling on Friday, looking at family members of the victims.
“The behavior of this defendant and his co-defendant can only be described as horrific, barbaric, cruel and harsh,” Judge Ellis said.
“This is an important event in the history of our country and our judicial system,” he said.
Elsheikh wore a green jumpsuit to the courtroom, with white trainers and a black face-cover, and glasses. He chose not to speak before the sentencing, but indicated that he plans to appeal the sentence and will replace his legal team.
James Foley’s mother, Diane Foley, addressed Elsheikh directly in court as she read his impression statement before sentencing.
“Today is the eighth anniversary of Jim’s gruesome beheading. Knowing the suffering of Jim, Mary and our entire family must have brought their own deep pain,” she said. “However, Jim also wants the two of you to know that your hate crimes do not win. James Wright Foley lives on.”
“This trial has exposed the horrific human rights crimes you have committed as part of ISIS,” she said. “Your hatred outweighed your humanity.
“You have been held responsible for your corruption (and) … you will spend the rest of your life in prison, but you are also lost. You have lost your citizenship, your country, your family.”
Throughout the trial, the jury heard evidence from former hostages, the families of his victims, another former Isis fighter, and US officials who interviewed Elsheikh after his capture.
The so-called Beatles, who were named by the prosecution as Elsheikh, Alexandra Cote and Mohamed Emwazi, were charged with at least 26 kidnappings in Syria between 2012 and 2015, most of them Western. Emwazi, who was killed in a drone attack in 2015, was believed to be the leader of the group and executed the hostages.
Coates pleaded guilty to his involvement in the killings of Foley, Sotloff, Mueller and Kasig in September 2021, and was sentenced to life in prison by a US judge earlier this year.
Richard Smith, who heads the British Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command, which provided evidence at the trial, said the investigation to bring Elsheikh to justice was “on an unprecedented scale, carried out by skilled and determined officers.”
“This is one of the most important international terrorism cases ever brought to trial. These were some of the most barbaric terrorist acts ever, carried out with chilling and brutality,” he said.
In the closing arguments of Elsheikh’s April trial, prosecuting lawyer Raj Parekh said that Elsheikh was involved in “systematic, premeditated, and continued abuse and torture” of the hostages along with his co-conspirators.
“The evidence shows that they grew up together, fought together as radical, high-ranking IS fighters, held hostages together, tortured and terrorized hostages together, and after Emwazi was killed, Elsheikh and The quotas were eventually held together in Syria,” said Mr. Parekh said.
Elsheikh’s defense team has denied that he was a member of the Beatles, and instead claimed that he was “an ordinary Isis soldier”. But his own words – information he confirmed in interviews with media outlets while in custody – were an important piece of prosecution evidence.
During the trial, prosecutors testified from witnesses about their time in the Beatles’ captivity, along with interviews given by Elsheikh to various journalists.
In those interviews, he named some of the Western hostages he saw, collecting emails for use in ransom notes and admitting to beating them.
In a video shown to the court, he told an interviewer, “I have killed most of the prisoners.” “I had crimes. I physically violated,” he said, when asked about the assault.
He tried to justify his mistreatment of the prisoners by claiming that it was necessary to keep the prisoners in line as they did not have proper facilities to prevent them from escaping.
“The use of captives is to prevent them from escaping,” he said.
Elsheikh’s defense team tried to take those videos out of evidence, suggesting that he was forced to make confessions during his detention by his Kurdish guards. That motion was rejected by the judge, who claimed that the US officials who visited him in prison showed no signs of abuse.
During the closing debate, Mr Parekh said those clips were a major reason why the jury should find Elsheikh guilty.
“Let’s start with the most obvious reason to conclude that Elschech was one of the three infamous Beatles: He told you himself shamelessly,” he said. “You have seen video clip after video clip of the interview in which the defendant admitted and described in fine detail his integral and necessary involvement in the offenses that constitute the horrific criminal conduct in this case.”
The jury heard from several former hostages of the Beatles, who testified hard about their time in captivity.
Federico Motka, a former Beatles hostage, described how he and his fellow captives were given dog names by their jailers, who subjected them to a “rule of punishment” for alleged crimes.
French journalist Didier François, who was kidnapped in 2013, gave similar testimony, describing the Beatles as “extremely violent and always tragic”.
The jury also heard the emotional testimony of several family members of the hostages, who were eventually executed by Isis in horrific propaganda videos.