Brother in bid to get justice for ISIS victim
THE brother of an Islamic State victim wants to give evidence to help the prosecution of two of Britain’s most notorious terror suspects.
Mike Haines, whose brother David was murdered in Syria in 2014, has given a statement to British police and will travel to the US if needed.
Evidence is expected to be called from former hostages identifying Londoners Alexanda Kotey, 36, and El Shafee Elsheikh, 32, as members of the notorious “Beatles” ISIS squad.
The two men faced a US court for the first time on Friday and denied conspiring to murder four American hostages.
Both defendants claim they were responsible only for
Brother Mike Haines sending emails demanding ransoms. Mr Haines told The Times he thought he had information that could prove crucial to the prosecution.
He said the group never responded to efforts to get in touch and feels they never intended to release their British and American captives. The only communication that they received was a letter from David when a French hostage was released in 2014, written on his kidnappers’ behalf, and demanding £136million. Mr Haines said: “If every member of the family had sold everything, we wouldn’t have come close. I thought of every option, even a bank robbery. “I try not to have hate. Every day I have a daily battle with hate but if I do hate, I am not honouring my brother.”