A court in the US on Friday gave eight life sentences to El Shafee Elsheikh for his role in the hostage-taking and killing of American nationals. Elsheikh received his eight life sentences in a Virginia courtroom on the eighth anniversary of the gruesome beheading of American journalist James Foley.
Dubbed as the key member of the ISIS Beatles, Elsheikh was charged in October 2020 along with another member of the dreaded cell, Alexanda Kotey. Elsheikh was convicted in April this year. His other victims included American journalist Steven Sotloff, American aid workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller, as well as many other British and Japanese nationals.
Who Is El Shafee Elsheikh?
Elsheikh along with Kotey and Mohamed Emwazi formed the deadly trio of the ISIS Beatles for their roles in carrying out beheadings of American, British and Japanese nationals before publicising the brutal act using the internet.
First Assistant US Attorney Raj Parekh, according to a release from the Department of Justice, said that Elsheikh, Emwazi, and Kotey helped lead a network of at least nine detention facilities in which 26 civilian hostages from 12 countries were held captive in Syria.”
From August 2014 through October 2014, ISIS released videos of beheadings of James Foley, Steven Sotloff, and British citizens David Haines and Alan Henning. In November 2014, the dreaded terror outfit released another video showing the decapitated head of Peter Kassig.
In January 2015, ISIS released videos showing the decapitated body of Japanese citizen Haruna Yukawa and the beheading of Japanese citizen Kenji Goto. on 7 February 2015, ISIS wrote to Kayla Mueller’s family confirming Mueller’s death in Syria.
Parekh said that the vicious acts of these three terrorists against the ‘world spread carnage and fear, and caused deep despair.’
“And as we sadly know, these devastating crimes resulted in the deaths of at least eight American, British, and Japanese citizens, among others, including gruesome beheadings that were publicized on a global scale and perversely touted by ISIS propaganda,” Parekh added.
The British government revoked the citizenship of Elsheikh and Kotey for their roles as terrorists. Both of them were captured by the Syrian Democratic Forces as they tried to flee to Turkey in January 2018. The British government approved their extradition to the US on a promise that they would not receive death sentences.
Kotey pleaded guilty in September and was given eight concurrent life sentences, reported the CNN.
Now both will spend rest of their life in jail.