US willing to not execute IS ‘Beatles’
THE Trump administration is open to taking the death penalty off the table for the British Islamic State suspects known as “the Beatles” – a potential sentence that the UK had objected to – paving the way for a trial in the US, The Daily Telegraph understands.
Bill Barr, the US attorney general, signalled a different opinion on the issue from senior officials, according to a source with knowledge of a meeting that happened on Wednesday.
Mr Barr met with officials at the White House and said he would be willing to make the concession to move along with the case, which he described as a “priority”. Britain’s Supreme Court ruled in March that it was unlawful for authorities to co-operate with the US without first being assured that Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, from London, would not face the death penalty if convicted.
Earlier this month, British officials told their American counterparts that they were suspending sending over evidence in criminal cases because the US still uses capital punishment.
“There has been a definite change of opinion,” the source said. “They were just anxious that the Brits would work with them sharing their intelligence and that would only happen if they removed the death penalty. No one was budging, until now.” The families of James Foley, Steven Sotloff and Kayla Mueller, who were killed by IS militants, have urged the US justice department to do whatever they could to ensure the pair, who have been held in US custody in Iraq since October, were brought to trial in America.
It is understood the Trump administration, which has been pushing for the reinstatement of the death penalty at federal level by appealing the stay of a number of executions in Indiana, had a change of heart last week.
Pressure on the administration has grown following revelations that “the Beatles” had been involved in the kidnapping of US volunteer Ms Mueller.
Kotey, 36, and Elsheikh, 32, who have been stripped of their British citizenship, appeared to confirm their roles in the captivity of the aid worker, who is believed to have been killed in 2015.
On the same day, the families published a column in The Washington Post calling for the pair to be tried in the US.
The appeal, and the new disclosure, prompted the administration to move quickly. Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, hinted that a decision had been reached on Thursday when he told the Senate foreign relations committee that there would be a “good outcome” in the case “in the coming weeks”.
The Telegraph understands that it would be the Eastern District of Virginia
that would prosecute the pair, should they be successfully indicted.
Dropping their objections would in theory allow US prosecutors to use evidence at trial gathered by UK intelligence, without which building a strong case would be extremely difficult.
Sources told The Telegraph the administration would present the decision as being “tough on terrorism”.
Diane Foley, the mother of Mr Foley, a journalist executed by Mohammed Emwazi, a British IS leader, said she did not agree with the death penalty and wanted to see the men face justice in a US court as soon as possible. “I am hopeful this administration is moving things forward,” she added.