ISIS ‘Beatles’ set for Guantanamo
Judges bar Britain from sharing evidence with US... as fanatics could face death penalty there
TWO British Islamic State terror suspects will end up in Guantanamo Bay after their families won a legal challenge yesterday, ministers believe.
El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey, who are accused of belonging to a four-man execution cell in Syria known as The Beatles, could face the death penalty in the US.
The cell also included Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John, who was killed in 2015, and Aine Davis, who has been jailed in Turkey.
Emwazi appeared in a number of videos in which hostages, including British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, were killed. They were called The Beatles by other terrorists because of their English accents.
The Government in Britain wants the pair, who are in American custody in Iraq, tried in the US, where officials believe there is a more realistic chance of prosecution than in Britain.
But in a bitter blow, the Supreme Court yesterday ruled it was unlawful for this country to share evidence with Washington without seeking assurances the suspects will not face the death penalty.
The decision throws plans to have the pair tried in a court in the US into chaos. Senior Government sources in the UK said they believed it would lead to Washington sending Elsheikh and Kotey straight to the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba instead.
One said: ‘They’ll be in Guantanamo before you can blink. Their best route to a fair trial was this, now the Americans will probably just send them to Guantanamo.’
The ruling means that the Government may now have to ask the Americans to return its evidence, and it will not be allowed to participate in any US prosecution.
Kotey and Elsheikh, who have been stripped of their citizenship, were captured in January 2018 by Syrian Kurdish forces. This sparked an international row over whether they should be returned to the UK for trial or face justice in another jurisdiction. Elsheikh’s mother, Maha Elgizouli, then- home against brought secretary the a legal decision Sajid challenge of Javid to share evidence with American authorities.
Mr Javid did this without seeking assurances the men would not be executed if convicted in the US.
Her case was dismissed by the High Court in January last year, but yesterday seven Supreme Court justices unanimously allowed her appeal. Explaining the judgment, Lord Kerr said Mr Javid’s decision to share evidence with the US breached data protection laws. The judge said: ‘The information in question was transferred without being based on sufficient safeguards and without the requisite assessment of whether special circumstances justifying the transfer existed.
‘The decision was based on political expediency, rather than strict necessity. It was consequently unlawful under the [Data Protection Act].’
In June 2018, Mr Javid authorised the sharing of 600 witness statements gathered by Scotland Yard under a ‘mutual legal assistance’ agreement in a letter to then US attorney general Jeff Sessions.
Mr Javid faced criticism after the letter was leaked, with MPs accusing him of breaching the UK’s long-standing opposition to the death penalty.
Then-prime minister Theresa May supported his decision, which was also backed by Boris Johnson when he was foreign secretary.
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘The Government’s priority has always been to maintain national security and to deliver justice for the victims and their families. We are clearly very disappointed with today’s judgment and are carefully considering next steps.’
‘Sufficient safeguards’