’Send Isis Beatles to death’ fury
Javid will not back Brits
CAMPAIGNERS have accused ministers of abandoning the UK’s opposition to the death penalty over two Isis jihadis.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid will not seek guarantees that captured terrorists Alexanda Kotey and Shafee El-Sheikh will be spared execution if tried in America.
The pair – two of the Isis “Beatles” killers – are from west London but have been stripped of UK citizenship.
Javid has told US attorney general Jeff Sessions that Britain will demand no “assurances” over their capital punishment.
His letter stated: “I am of the view there are strong reasons for not requiring a death penalty assurance in this specific case, so no such assurances will be sought.”
Javid insisted “this case does not reflect a change in our policy on assistance in US death penalty cases”.
But there has been fury over the decision.
Barrister Lord Carlile claimed the letter was “extraordinary, a dramatic change of policy by a minister, secretly, without discussion in Parliament”.
Allan Hogarth, from Amnesty International, said: “This is a deeply worrying development.”
Shadow Attorney General Shami Chakrabarti said: “Sajid Javid is not just playing with the lives of these terrorists but those of other Britons all over the world.”
Kotey and El-Sheikh have been held by US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces since January .
Security Minister Ben Wallace claimed the Government does “not think we have the evidence to try them in the UK”.
He added: “We are not talking about UK citizens.”
The pair along with Mohammed Emwazi, nicknamed Jihadi John, and Aine Davis were called after the 60s band due to their Scouse accents.
Emwazi, killed in a US air strike in 2015, appeared in videos in which captives – including Alan Henning and David Haines – were killed.
Haines, from Perth, was beheaded in 2014 after being held captive for 18 months.
His horrible death was filmed as propaganda and released by Isis.
David’s daughter Bethany previously said she would like to see the captured pair die a “slow painful death”.
She also said in an interview following the capture of Kotey and El-Sheikh she was “relieved” and hoped they would be locked up and “the key thrown away”.