WORLD US may lock up terrorist ‘ Beatles’
THE US is considering sending the two British jihadists who were part of the “Beatles” terror cell to Guantanamo Bay.
US officials want to send the Londoners to the notorious American- run prison in Cuba, where they could be held for years without trial.
The development further questions Britain’s willingness to allow the extradition of Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, who are being held by Kurdish forces in northern Syria.
Their fate became a political row when it emerged the UK Government was not seeking assurances from the US that they would be spared the death penalty.
Last month UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid ordered a “pause” in co- operation with the US over their possible extradition.
NBC News reported that weeks ago the US submitted a waiver to Mr Javid asking him to allow the two men to be turned over to their custody.
Part of the waiver says that they could be eligible for the death penalty, two former administration officials and a Western diplomat said.
Kotey and Elsheikh are part of a group of several hundred former IS fighters who were captured by the SDF Kurdish militia.
The group does not have the manpower or facilities to hold them long- term and the US is trying to send them to their home nations for justice, but they are struggling. Britain stripped the two men of their UK citizenship rather than allow them to return home and has been negotiating with the US ever since.
A spokesman for the US National Security Council said that “all options will be considered” for detaining terrorist suspects.
Pentagon spokesman Commander Sean Robertson said that individuals could be sent to Guantanamo if they presented a “continuing, significant threat to the security of the United States”.
The most infamous Beatle was Mohammed Emwazi, otherwise known as “Jihadi John”, who was seen on brutal videos beheading and torturing prisoners.
The cell got its nickname because of members’ British accents. Among their known victims were Britons Alan Henning and David Haines and Americans James Foley and Steven Sotloff.
Emwazi was killed in a 2015 drone strike. The fourth Beatle, Aine Lesley Davis, is in a Turkish prison.