The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
IS suspects claim they are being denied any justice
complaints: ‘Beatles’ duo have been stripped of UK citizenship
Two British men suspected of belonging to the Islamic State group nicknamed “the Beatles”, which carried out the murder of Perth aid worker David Haines, have protested they are being denied justice.
The pair, believed to have belonged to a cell notorious for beheading hostages in northern Syria, said reports the UK Government had stripped them of their citizenship meant they would not receive a fair trial.
El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Amon Kotey spoke from detention in northern Syria in their first interview with the media.
They were captured in early January in eastern Syria by the Kurdish-led US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.
Though they spoke of their membership in the Islamic State group, they did not admit to belonging to the cell or to have been involved in any of the kidnappings or killings.
The pair denounced as “illegal” the UK’s decision in February to revoke their citizenship. The move was widely reported, although officials have neither confirmed nor denied it, citing privacy rules.
The loss of citizenship exposed them to “rendition and torture,” Elsheikh said and they risked “being taken to any foreign land and treated in any way and having nobody to vouch for you”.
“When you have these two guys who don’t even have any citizenship... if we just disappear one day, where is my mom going to go and say where is my son,” he added.
Both have been interrogated by US officials since their capture, although no decision has been made on where and how to prosecute them.
Former mechanic Elsheikh, whose family came to Britain from Sudan when he was a child, travelled from London to Syria in 2012, initially joining al-Qaida’s branch before moving on to IS, according to the US State Department.
It said he “earned a reputation for waterboarding, mock executions and crucifixions while serving as an (IS) jailer.”
Fellow Londoner Kotey, who is of Ghanaian and Greek-Cypriot descent and converted to Islam in his twenties, served as a guard for the execution cell and “likely engaged in the group’s executions and exceptionally cruel torture methods, including electronic shock and waterboarding,” the State Department said.
Mr Haines’ daughter Bethany, from Perth, spoke of her relief when the pair were captured.
Her father was killed in 2014 after being held captive for 18 months.
The 44-year-old father-of-two had been helping refugees in a camp near the Turkish border when he was snatched by militants.
The men were allegedly among four British jihadis who made up the IS cell nicknamed “the Beatles” because of their English accents.