SENTENCE UK JIHADI KILLERS TO DEATH
As captured British IS terrorists set for trial in US, daughter of Scottish beheading victim pleads:
THE daughter of a Scot beheaded by ‘Jihadi John’ yesterday said two members of his British IS terror cell should be executed.
Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh – who belonged to a band of killers dubbed The Beatles – were captured in Syria by Kurdish-led forces.
Islamic State (IS) is being driven out of the country and it is believed that Kotey, 34, was trying to sneak back to the UK – potentially to bring bloodshed to the streets – when he was caught.
Both were henchmen of Mohammed Emwazi – dubbed Jihadi John – who beheaded hostages, including Scots aid worker David Haines and fellow Briton Alan Henning.
Yesterday, as it emerged that the pair are likely to face trial in the
US, Mr Haines’ daughter Bethany called for them to be sentenced to death – and said she would like to look them both in the eye at their trial.
Miss Haines, of Coupar Angus, Perthshire, said: ‘It’s brilliant that these evil people have been caught. The families will now have people to hold to account for their loved ones’ deaths. No punishment is enough for these barbarians and in my opinion they should be sentenced to a slow, painful death.’
The 20-year-old later said she acknowledged that the pair were unlikely to face the death penalty, telling the BBC: ‘The best thing for them is to be locked up and throw away the key. They should never be allowed back in society because they will just recruit people and they will do this again.
‘If it goes to trial I will certainly be there. I will look them in the eye and let them know that I am who I am, and they have destroyed a big part of my life.
‘Hopefully there will be some sort of justice. I would hope they would show some sort of remorse, seeing the families and seeing the people they have actually affected.’
Mr Haines was the first Briton to die at the hands of the notorious killer in a propaganda video produced by IS in 2014.
The 44-year-old was in Syria helping victims of the country’s civil war when he was abducted by extremists in 2013.
The former RAF Engineer, originally from Scone, Perthshire, had been living in Croatia with his wife Dragana and their daughter Athea, four. He was kidnapped only days into his humanitarian mission.
Emwazi was killed in a US drone strike in 2015, while the fourth ‘Beatle’, Aine Davis, is
‘Sentence them to a painful death’
serving a seven-year sentence in a Turkish jail after being found guilty of terrorism offences last year.
Miss Haines said the capture of the remaining two men brought back painful memories. She added: ‘You never get over it, you just learn how to deal with it and how to manage the different emotions that play in your head every day.
‘It does bring it all back – I remember seeing him in the orange jump suit. Those men were responsible for that, and they were responsible for the torture of other hostages and for the deaths of quite a lot of men.’
Meanwhile, it emerged last night that the UK Government has washed its hands of the last two members of the terror cell.
The brutal extremists, both dual nationals, have been stripped of their UK citizenship by the Home Office to keep them from re-entering the country.
The Government said it was happy for them to stand trial on terror and murder charges in the US, ensuring they face justice in a court of law.
Officers from the CIA and Britain’s MI6 were last night interrogating Kotey and Elsheikh, 29. One source said the captives were potentially a ‘treasure trove’ of intelligence.
The pair, along with Emwazi, 27, and Davis, 33, were known as The Beatles because of their English accents. The four Londoners, who revelled in the torture, murder and humiliation of their prisoners, slaughtered at least 27 hostages during the Islamist uprising in Iraq and Syria.
They were captured by the Kurdish-led US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which were battling the last remaining pockets of IS fighters in January – two years after Emwazi was killed in a drone strike.
Kotey was trying to smuggle himself back into Europe when he was caught, ITV News reported last night. The men were handed to US Special Operations forces, who confirmed their identities using fingerprints and other biometric data.
Yesterday it emerged that Kotey, a halfGhanaian, half-Greek Cypriot nicknamed ‘Ringo’, and Elsheikh, who fled Sudan with his family aged five and was known as ‘George’, had been deprived of their UK passports on national security grounds after they travelled to Syria.
Between 2006 and 2015 there were at least 81 deprivations of citizenship orders made, including 36 made because it was ‘conducive to the public good’, but reports have put the number as high as 150. Security sources said IS fighters were increasingly having citizenship removed so they did not have to be dealt with in the UK courts if captured.
Officials fear that if UK jihadis are sent back to Britain much of the evidence could be inadmissible in the courts, for example if they had been tortured and mistreated by local forces, and they would be set free.
Whitehall sources said there was still a small chance the pair could stand trial in the UK, but admitted there were other countries ‘in front of us in the queue’.
The insider said: ‘We just want them brought to justice and banged up.’
Another source said: ‘When we stripped their citizenship, we washed our hands of them.’
It is not clear if the US Justice Department will eventually prosecute the pair or if the military will take responsibility for them.
Major Adrian Rankine-Galloway from the US Department of Defense said: ‘We are still considering options regarding Elsheikh and Kotey, but rest assured our intention is to hold anyone accountable who commits acts like those they are alleged to have committed.’
He confirmed that the pair were being held in a ‘detention location’ in Syria. The Americans are thought to be likely to request the Kurds hand over the prisoners to them.
Diane Foley, whose son James, 40, a US journalist, was killed in an IS execution
video by Emwazi, said she wanted the fanatics jailed for life but only after they face justice in court.
She said: ‘Their crimes are beyond imagination. I would like them to be brought to trial in the US but as long as they are brought to fair trial and detained and justice is served I would be most grateful.
‘It does not bring James back but hopefully it protects others from this kind of crime. I would like them to spend the rest of their lives being detained in a prison.’
Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said: ‘These people have turned their backs on Britain, killed innocents and tried to bring terror to the streets of our country.
‘I am glad they have been hunted down and now is time for them to be held to account and pay the price for their barbaric crimes.’
Tory MP Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Commons’ Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said: ‘Those who take up arms against their country are traitors. These jihadists deserve to have the full force of the law used against them... But it is important that we use the law, not brutal, summary justice of the kind these men used on their victims.’
Muslim convert Kotey was a guard for the execution cell. The US State Department says he took part in the torture of hostages and also acted as a recruiter for IS.
Elsheikh, a former mechanic who supported Queen’s Park Rangers, ‘earned a reputation for waterboarding, mock executions and crucifixions’ while serving as the cell’s guard, it said.
British intelligence and military officials were made aware of the capture last month. UK officials described their capture as a potential ‘treasure trove’ of intelligence that they hope will lead to information on the fate of John Cantlie, a British journalist who has been in IS captivity since 2012.
They could also answer questions about what happened to other British foreign fighters as the so-called caliphate disintegrated, including how many were killed, fled to other countries or returned home.
A senior US official said Kotey and Elsheikh had provided valuable details to military interrogators about the remaining IS leadership and support structure.