Jihadi ‘Beatles’ admit role in Kayla ordeal
TWO of the British jihadis known as The Beatles have for the first time admitted involvement in the imprisonment of US aid worker Kayla Mueller, who was raped and died in captivity.
In newly revealed interviews, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh admit beating hostages in Syria, including Miss Mueller, 26, and trying to communicate with families to extract ransoms.
The pair, who were part of a four-strong Islamic State ‘kill squad’ nicknamed The Beatles by captives because of their British accents, are in US military custody in Iraq.
The four Londoners have been accused of involvement in as many as 20 beheadings, including those of aid workers David Haines, from Perth, and Alan Henning, from Manchester.
A third cell member, Mohammed Emwazi, was nicknamed Jihadi John after appearing in IS videos showing beheadings. He was killed in a joint US-British drone strike in 2015. The fourth ‘Beatle’, Aine Davis, was jailed in Turkey in 2017.
Kotey and Elsheikh have previously denied meeting Miss Mueller, who was captured in Syria in 2013. In the tapes obtained by NBC News, Elsheikh, 32, said of Miss Mueller: ‘I took an email from her myself,’ meaning he got an address IS could use to demand ransom from the family. ‘She was in a large room, it was dark, and she was alone, and she was very scared,’ he said.
Miss Mueller, from Arizona, was tortured and raped in captivity. She died in 2015.
In the new interviews, both Kotey and Elsheikh sought to distance themselves from the torture and killings, instead calling themselves ‘liaisons’ to the hostages. But each admitted beating captives and helping extract ransoms. Both have been stripped of their British citizenship.
In March the Supreme Court here ruled it was unlawful for the UK to share evidence with the US without seeking assurances the pair will not face the death penalty.