Jihadi hostage’s girl: After 8 years, I can sleep at night
Relief for Bethany after conviction of ISIS ‘Beatle’ who helped kill her dad
The daughter of a Scot murdered by the notorious ISIS ‘Beatles’ said she is now hopeful of getting a ‘full night’s sleep’ after a member of the gang was convicted in the US.
Bethany haines, whose father David was captured and killed by them, said the conviction of ‘sadist’ el Shafee elsheikh on Thursday was ‘a lot more emotional’ than she expected.
Mr haines was abducted by militants in Syria in March 2013 while delivering aid to the war-torn country. The 44-year-old’s murder the following year was used for propaganda by ‘The Beatles’, who were given the moniker because of their distinctive British accents.
Speaking to the BBC after the case in Virginia, Miss haines, 24, said: ‘I expected to be happy, excited, but it’s the realisation that he’s guilty, what he’s done to all the families, all the hostages.
‘I’ve not slept a full night’s sleep probably since my dad was killed in 2014, so hopefully tonight I’ll get a full night’s sleep.’
She added on Facebook: ‘The sadist el Shafee elsheikh was found guilty on all eight counts.
‘No punishment will ever be enough or bring back my father but at least justice has been served. The bravery of the ex-hostages and those that testified as witnesses is what put this beast in prison.’
She told ITV news the most suffering for elsheikh would be around his image, which ‘he’s so obsessed with’.
She added: ‘having everyone know that he’s guilty and he has to sit for 23 and a half hours a day in a horrible cell and think about what he’s done for the rest of his life. That is real justice.’
elsheikh and fellow Beatle Alexanda Kotey, 38, will be sentenced later this month.
The cell, also said to be made up of ringleader Mohammed emwazi, known as Jihadi John, and Aine Davis, was thought responsible for the brutal killings of several Western and Japanese captives, including Britons Alan henning and Mr haines.
Davis is in jail in Turkey and emwazi was killed in a drone strike. Mr henning and Mr haines did not figure in the indictment against elsheikh and Kotey – Kotey having already admitted his role in the atrocities – because the court was focusing only on American victims.
It is believed the Islamic State pair may yet face a UK court for the deaths of British nationals.
Mr haines’s brother Mike said the conviction of 33-year-old Londoner elsheikh ‘provided us with some closure’.
On Thursday, elsheikh was convicted of eight counts relating to four US hostages: James Foley, 40; Steven Sotloff, 31; Peter Kassig, 26; and Kayla Mueller, 26, after a trial at the US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia.