Islamic State member El Shafee Elsheikh sentenced to life in prison
A federal judge on Friday handed a life sentence to an Islamic State cell member who had a role in a hostagetaking scheme leading to the beheadings of American journalists and aid workers.
The punishment from Judge TS Ellis III for the former British national El Shafee Elsheikh, 33, came after a jury convicted him in April at the end of a six-week trial.
Jurors concluded that Elsheikh was part of a cell that spoke with British accents, were nicknamed “the Beatles”, held Americans hostage and beheaded them in Iraq and Syria.
Born in Sudan and raised in London, Elsheikh was convicted of having a hand in the killings of James Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller.
Foley’s mother, Diane Foley, spoke at Elsheikh’s sentencing on Friday, which was the eighth anniversary of her son’s beheading.
“Hatred truly overwhelmed your humanity,” Foley she said, adding that sentencing Elsheikh to life imprisonment could deter other potential hostage takers.
Foley and Sotloff were journalists. Kassig was an aid worker. Their beheadings – confirmed in 2014 – were recorded on video.
The Islamic state leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi repeatedly raped Mueller before the confirmation of her death in early 2015.
At least 26 people in between 2012 and 2015 were kidnapped by the group of which Elsheikh was a part. The group was also linked to the deaths of the British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning as well as the Japanese journalists Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto.
Kurdish forces supported by the US captured Elsheikh during the collapse of the Islamic State in 2018. He was later transferred to an American prison for his role in the deaths of Foley, Sotloff, Kassig and Mueller. Prosecutors said he confessed, including in media interviews that he granted while in detention.
In those interviews, Elsheikh acknowledged beating hostages and getting them to email their families with ransom demands.
Elsheikh’s defense team argued that his confessions were coerced, and it plans to appeal both his conviction and the accompanying life sentence. He did not speak during his sentencing Friday at a federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia.
Ellis, the judge in the case, declined to recommend that federal prison officials keep Elsheikh out of solitary confinement for the rest of his life, despite a request for that from defense lawyers.
“The behavior of this defendant … can only be described as horrific, barbaric, brutal, callous and, of course, criminal,” Ellis said.
Federal prosecutor Raj Parekh said the authorities “unmasked the vicious and sadistic [Islamic State] Beatles” through their pursuit of Elsheikh and his compatriots.
The charges against Elsheikh technically carried the possibility of execution but US prosecutors indicated they would not pursue the death penalty – which can entail years of costly legal appeals – in return for British cooperation in the case after his 2018 arrest.
Elsheikh, who was born in Sudan and raised in London, has since had his British citizenship revoked.
Another cell member, Alexanda Kotey, received a federal life sentence earlier this year after pleading guilty in September to the murders of Foley, Sotloff, Kassig and Mueller. A 2015 missile strike by US and British forces killed a third cell member, Mohammed Emwazi.
Some hostages the cell released as part of negotiations testified during Elsheikh’s trial about the torture to which they were subjected. Victims’ family members also testified.