Row as UK says it will not block US executions
THERESA MAY backed the decision not to seek assurances from Washington that two Britons suspected of fighting for Islamic State will not face execution if extradited to the US for terror crimes, Downing Street has said.
The decision of Home Secretary Sajid Javid not to seek “death penalty assurances” in the case of two suspected members of IS’s so-called “Beatles” cell sparked uproar in Westminster.
MPs accused him of breaching the UK’s longstanding opposition to the death penalty, while the Government’s former reviewer of anti-terror legislation Lord Carlile branded the move “extraordinary”.
Amnesty International said Mr Javid was “leaving the door wide open to charges of hypocrisy and double standards” by failing to seek “cast-iron assurances” from the US that the two men will not be executed.
Home Office Minister Ben Wallace was summoned to answer questions from alarmed MPs in the Commons, where he insisted that there had been no other cases of the requirement being waived since he took on the security brief in 2016.
He promised to inform MPs if earlier instances came to light.
Asked whether the Prime Minister approved of Mr Javid’s position, set out in a letter to US attorney general Jeff Sessions, a Downing Street spokeswoman initially said only that Mrs May was “made aware” of it, adding that the Government opposes the death penalty “in all circumstances as a matter of principle”.
But Number 10 later shifted, telling reporters that Mrs May “supports” the Home Secretary’s handling of the case and hopes it will end with the two men remaining in prison for life.
“The ultimate aim for all of us in our discussions with the US is to make sure that these men face the rest of their lives in prison. That is also what the victims’ families want,” said the Downing Street spokeswoman.
“In this instance, after careful and considered advice, the Government took the decision not to seek assurances. That was deemed by Ministers to be appropriate. The Prime Minister was aware of these plans and supports the way that these are being handled.”
Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh are said to have been members of a brutal four-man cell of IS executioners in Syria and Iraq, responsible for killing a series of high-profile Western captives, including British aid workers Yorkshire-born David Haines and Alan Henning and US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.
Nicknamed after the band because of their British accents, the cell is believed to have included Mohammed Emwazi – known as “Jihadi John” – who was killed in a US air strike in 2015, and Aine Davis, who has been jailed in Turkey.
Kotey and Elsheikh, who are thought to have been stripped of British citizenship, were captured in January, sparking a row over whether they should be returned to the UK for trial or face justice in another jurisdiction.