SO NOW YOU’RE SORRY
Two notorious ISIS ‘Beatles’ FINALLY apologise to family of executed Scots aid worker David Haines — as they face the death penalty in United States
TWO Britons known as the Islamic State Beatles have apologised for their part in the beheading of Scottish aid worker David Haines.
Alexanda Kotey, 35, and El Shafee Elsheikh, 31, said they regretted upsetting Mr Haines’s family, and claimed they had not carried out the killing.
The 44-year-old, from Perth, was executed in Syria in 2014 after being abducted and held for 18 months. But Mr Haines’s daughter Bethany dismissed the apology and said she would keep ‘pushing’ to ‘make their lives hell’ until they give the answers she wants.
Miss Haines, pictured, said she was ‘relieved’ the pair had been taken from Syria and sent to the US for trial, where they will face a possible death penalty.
The Britons were extracted from their jihadi prison in Syria as Turkey launched a military offensive on Wednesday.
The pair finally offered a ‘sincere apology’ for their roles in the death of Mr Haines, who was beheaded by Mohammed Emwazi, also known as Jihadi John. Asked to apologise for Mr Haines’s killing and reveal the whereabouts of his body, Elsheikh told ITV before being flown to the US that he was not involved in the execution and does not know where it happened. But he did admit to ‘an interaction’ with Mr Haines in the run-up to his death by helping to move him in a van. ‘I have no problem apologising for that,’ he said. He denied being responsible for Mr Haines’s capture while he was working at a Syrian refugee camp in 2013, or his detention. In a separate interview Kotey also offered an apology, despite initially refusing to say anything and insisting he had already apologised in footage that was not broadcast. Addressing his response to Miss Haines, he said: ‘I regret, and I’m sad for her that was the fate of her father. It’s not something I’m in agreement with and if there is anything that I have done which may have caused some kind of distress to her or her father while he was in detention then I apologise.’
Mr Haines was among 17 hostages who were held by the group of four ISIS thugs dubbed ‘The Beatles’ because of their English accents. In a sickening video he was seen kneeling in an orange jumpsuit before being beheaded by Emwazi, the cell’s leader.
Mr Haines had been working as a security consultant for French charity Acted when he was seized in Syria in March 2013.
In response to the interview, Miss Haines said it was ‘okay’ if the men refused to admit they had done wrong. But she added: ‘I’m not letting this go... I will fight for justice and I will fight to find out the truth.’
Miss Haines told ITV: ‘I’m not going to give up regardless of if they are in Syria or in some US prison. It is such a relief that the chances of them escaping are very much lessened now.’
Mr Haines’s wife, Dragana, told Mail Online: ‘I can’t have an opinion until the right and proper thing is done: that his remains are brought home to his family.
‘His wife and daughter have unending lack of closure or focus and a need to respect his final resting place here.’
As Turkish troops advanced into Syria, American forces moved to secure ‘high-value detainees’ including the British jihadis, US officials said. Troops were expected to hand over nearly 50 ISIS militants to Iraq last night. They are likely to face trials lasting as little as ten minutes before public hangings.
But London-born Kotey and Elsheikh – who was born in Sudan – will not be among them.
Rather than run the risk of them escaping in the chaos, the prized prisoners were taken to a US Air Force base in Iraq, sources said.
They will now be sent to Virginia to stand trial for terror offences.
They are accused of involvement in up to 20 beheadings, including that of British aid worker Alan Henning.
Any extradition to the US will, however, be held up by a case brought by Elsheikh’s mother, Maha Elgizouli, who has challenged the decision not to prosecute her son in Britain after the terror pair were stripped of their citizenship.
‘I will fight for justice and truth’