US charges IS members in deaths of hostages
WASHINGTON >> Two Islamic State militants from Britain were brought to the United States on Wednesday to face charges in a gruesome campaign of torture, beheadings and other acts of violence against four Americans and others captured and held hostage in Syria.
El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey are two of four men who were dubbed “the Beatles” by the hostages because of the cap
tors’ British accents. The two men made their first appearance Wednesday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, where a federal grand jury issued an eightcount indictment that accuses them of being “leading participants in a brutal hostage-taking scheme” that resulted in the deaths of Western hostages, including American journalist James Foley.
The charges are a milestone in a yearslong effort by U.S. authorities to bring to justice members of the
group known for beheadings and barbaric treatment of aid workers, journalists and other hostages in Syria. Startling for their unflinching depictions of cruelty and violence, recordings of the murders were released online in the form of propaganda for a group that at its peak controlled vast swaths of Syria and Iraq.
The case underscores the Justice Department’s commitment to prosecuting in American civilian court militants captured overseas, said Assistant Attorney General John Demers, who vowed that other extremists “will be pursued to the ends of the earth.” The defendants’ arrival in the U.S. sets the
stage for one of the more sensational terrorism prosecutions in recent years.
“If you have American blood in your veins or American blood on your hands, you will face American justice,” said Demers, the department’s top national security official.
The two men made brief court appearances Wednesday via video hookup from the Alexandria jail, where they were appointed a federal defender. The attorney who heads that office declined to comment after the proceedings. A detention hearing and arraignment were set for Friday.
The indictment charges the men in connection with
the deaths of four American hostages — Foley, journalist Steven Sotloff and aid workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller — as well as British and Japanese nationals who were also held captive. The charges include hostage-taking resulting in death and other terrorismrelated counts. Because of a recent concession by the Justice Department, prosecutors will not be seeking the death penalty.
The indictment characterizes Kotey and Elsheikh, both of whom prosecutors say radicalized in London and left for Syria in 2012, as “leading participants in a brutal hostage-taking scheme” that targeted
American and European citizens and that involved murders, mock executions, shocks with tasers, physical restraints and other brutal acts.
Prosecutors say the men worked closely with a chief spokesman for IS who reported to the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed in a U.S. military operation last year. They were joined in the “Beatles” by Mohamed Emwazi, who was killed in a 2015 drone strike and was also known as “Jihadi John” after appearing and speaking in the videos of multiple executions, including Foley’s. A fourth member is serving a prison sentence in Turkey.