Government defends decision not to seek US execution assurances

THE GOVERNMENT has defended a decision not to seek assurances from Washington that two Britons suspected of fighting for Islamic State would not face execution if extradited to the US to face terror charges.

Downing Street said Theresa May backed the decision by Home Secretary Sajid Javid not to seek death penalty assurances as the case of two suspected members of IS’s so-called “Beatles” cell sparked uproar in Westminster.

MPs on all sides accused Mr Javid 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”. It emerged on Monday that Boris Johnson backed Mr Javid’s decision in the case of Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh before he resigned as Foreign Secretary over Brexit, despite some reservations.

It was reported an internal document which said he thought it could damage future attempts to dissuade the use of the death penalty but “agrees that the benefits outweigh the risks in this instance”.

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”.

Meanwhile, it was reported by Kings College in London that “significant gaps” exist in the recording of the numbers of women and children with links to Islamic State. It says the numbers aiming to return home may have been heavily underestimated.