The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Murdered Perth aid worker's daughter welcomes capture of extremist.
Bethany Haines welcomes capture of pair involved in her father’s killing
The daughter of murdered aid worker David Haines has welcomed news of the capture of two members of the gang believed to be responsible for his death.
Bethany Haines, who lives in Perthshire, said the pair should be “locked up and the key thrown away”.
She said she received a late-night phone call breaking the news that the two British extremists believed to have been members of the IS execution group dubbed “The Beatles” had been captured.
Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, along with Mohammed Emwazi — the killer nicknamed Jihadi John — and Aine Davis are believed to have been part of a group named after the ’60s band because of their English accents.
The four Londoners were linked to a string of hostage murders in Iraq and Syria, including the beheading of former Perth Academy pupil David Haines in 2014, which was captured on video and sent shockwaves around the world.
Sources said Kotey, 34 and Elsheikh, 29, were captured by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, fighting the last pockets of IS fighters near the river Euphrates on the Iraq/Syria border.
“My first thought was relief that the people who were involved in my dad’s murder had been caught and will both sort of face some justice,” said Ms Haines speaking to ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
“I think they should be locked up and the key thrown away and never released.”
The young mother said she welcomed the capture as there had always been the unanswered questions of where the gang members of the infamous “Beatles” were and whether they could do this sort of thing again.
“This will bring a lot of closure to a lot of people,” she said.
Asked whether they should be detained somewhere like Guantanamo Bay or dealt with by the justice system, Bethany said: “Something needs to be done. They have to be made examples of to say that there is zero tolerance to terrorism and these sort of crimes.”
Former child refugee Elsheikh was a mechanic from White City in west London and Kotey is from Paddington.
In January 2017, US authorities named him as a member of the cell saying: “The notorious cell, dubbed ‘The Beatles’ and once headed by nowdeceased Mohamed Emwazi (also known as Jihadi John), is responsible for holding captive and beheading approximately two dozen hostages, including several Westerners. ”
It said Kotey and Elsheikh, as guards for the cell, would most likely have been engaged in cruel torture methods.
The Foreign Office said it did not comment on individual cases or ongoing investigations.