WAS JIHADI BRITON SNEAKING BACK HOME?
Amid row over where IS pair stand trial...
A BRITISH jihadi who belonged to the notorious ‘Beatles’ terror cell was captured on his way back into Europe.
It is feared Alexanda Kotey, 34, was trying to return to the UK and bring bloodshed to the streets. He is one of four British fanatics nicknamed ‘ The Beatles’, whose leader ‘Jihadi John’ beheaded foreign hostages on camera. Londoner Kotey was held in Syria last month while trying to escape to Turkey, according to Kurdish-led forces. He was caught along with another member of the ‘Beatles’ cell, El Shafee Elsheikh, 29.
The terrorists, both dual nationals, had been stripped of their British citizenship by the Home Office in a bid to stop them re-entering the UK.
THE last two members of the notorious British terror cell dubbed ‘The Beatles’ were stripped of their UK citizenship even before they were captured in Syria, it emerged yesterday.
Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh were henchmen of Mohammed Emwazi – Jihadi John – who beheaded hostages including British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning on camera.
The extremists, both dual nationals, had their UK citizenship taken away by the Home Office to stop them re-entering the country.
The Government said it was happy for the two Islamic State jihadists to stand trial on terror and murder charges in America, ensuring the pair face justice in a court of law.
But one former hostage of the gang said he did not want Donald Trump to detain the pair in Guantanamo Bay, the US military prison in Cuba. Nicolas Henin, a French journalist, said depriving terrorists of their rights turns them into victims.
Last night officers from the CIA and MI6 were interrogating Kotey, 34, and Elsheikh, 29, to prise out information about the terror group. One source said the captives were potentially a ‘treasure trove’ of intelligence.
The pair, along with Emwazi, 27, and Aine Davis, 33, were known as The Beatles because of their English accents.
Kotey was caught while on the run from IS trying to smuggle himself back into Europe, ITV News reported last night.
Security chiefs are concerned that returning jihadists pose a grave danger because they have been radicalised, educated in bomb-making skills and desensitised to extreme violence.
Once IS fanatics reach southern Europe, often posing as refugees fleeing war and persecution, they can travel undetected across the passport-free Schengen travel zone to northern France – a short trip to the UK.
Security sources have said up to half of the estimated 850 Britons suspected to have gone to Syria and Iraq are believed to be back in the UK, leaving hundreds still to be accounted for.
The four west Londoners, who revelled in the torture, murder and humiliation of prisoners, slaughtered at least 27 hostages during the IS uprising in Iraq and Syria.
Emwazi was killed in a drone strike in Syria in 2015. Davis was convicted of terrorism offences and jailed for seven and a half years in Turkey last year.
Kotey and Elsheikh were captured by the Kurdish-led USbacked Syrian Democratic Forces, which were battling the last pockets of IS fighters in January. They were handed to American special operations forces who confirmed their identities using fingerprints and other biometric data.
Kotey, a half- Ghanaian, halfGreek Cypriot nicknamed Ringo, and Elsheikh, who fled Sudan with his family aged five and was known as George, had been deprived of their UK passports on national security grounds after they travelled to Syria.
Between 2006 and 2015 at least 81 deprivations of citizenship orders were made including 36 because it was ‘conducive to the public good’, but reports have put the number as high as 150 for those fighting with IS.
Security sources said UK foreign fighters were increasingly having citizenship removed so they did not have to be dealt with in the UK courts if they are captured.
Officials fear that if UK jihadis are sent back to Britain much of the evidence could be inadmissible in the courts. For instance if they had been tortured and mistreated by local forces, they could be set free on the streets.
Whitehall sources said there was a small chance the pair could stand trial in the UK but other countries were ‘in front of us in the queue’. The insider said: ‘We just want them brought to justice and banged up.’
Another source said: ‘ When we stripped their citizenship, we washed our hands of them.’
Major Adrian Rankine-Galloway, from the US Department of Defence, confirmed Kotey and Elsheikh were being held in a ‘detention location’ in Syria.
Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said: ‘Now is time for them to be held to account and pay the price for their barbaric crimes.’
Tobias Ellwood, a defence minister, said it would be wrong to send the jihadists to Guantanamo.
He told the Daily Telegraph: ‘We have robust rules of engagement which legitimise the killing of terrorists in theatres of opeartions, but once captured they must be judged by a legitimate authority. The horror of 9/11 meant we briefly lost sight of the standards and rule of law that took centuries to develop and fundamentally distinguish us from the terrorist.
‘Given the scale of foreign fighters we should consider an agreed international process involving The Hague, which ensures terrorists from any origin are transparently and fairly held to account.’
The US State Department says Muslim convert Kotey took part in the torture of hostages and acted as an IS recruiter. Elsheikh, a former mechanic, ‘earned a reputation for waterboarding, mock executions, and crucifixions’, it said. Both men are designated terrorists by the US, which accuses them of ‘exceptionally cruel torture methods’.
British officials were made aware of the capture last month. They hope it will lead to information on the fate of John Cantlie, the British journalist who has been in IS captivity since 2012.
The pair could also reveal what happened to British fighters as the IS ‘caliphate’ disintegrated, including how many returned home.
‘Hold them to account’