Politic?: The Atrocity-Loving ISIL 'Beatles' Execution Cell

"Time is of the essence. Further delay is no longer possible [if the two men are to be scheduled for trial in the United States]. Further delay is an injustice to the families of the victims." "On behalf of the US Department of Justice, I am writing to provide an assurance that if the United Kingdom grants our mutual legal assistance request, the United States will not seek the death penalty in any prosecutions it might bring against Alexanda Kotey or El Shafee Elsheikh, and if imposed, the death penalty will not be carried out." U.S. Attorney General William Barr


El Shafee el-Sheikh (L) and Alexanda Kotey (R) in photos provided by the SDF in February 2018

They were part of the Islamic State execution cell, gaining horrified notoriety in the cold-blooded murders of U.S. and British journalists and activists they captured and video-taped in a campaign of terrorism to gain a reputation as fearless and indomitable warriors of Islamofascism, creating a fearsome reputation for themselves in the process, while at the same time using the propaganda of jihad and beheading of helpless prisoners to gain the fascinated support of Islamist jihadis in the West who flocked to Syria to join ISIL.

Now, the United States is persuading the British government that should they transfer evidence in aid of the U.S. prosecution for the two suspects' involvement in the executions of American, British and other foreign hostages in Syria, the U.S. is prepared to forego the death penalty once their trial has concluded. Reasonably enough, evidence is required to hold justifiable yet reasonable trials. Evidence difficult to obtain given geographic distances and a closed terrorist society when the challenge to prosecutors and intelligence agencies is to procure evidence of a quality to stand up in a court of law.

The alternative is to just hand over ISIL members captured and imprisoned by the Kurdish forces, to the Iraqi government. There, trials may take place but their substance in justice can be questioned; they are not too queasy to impose death sentences in the absence of hard evidence that meticulous prosecutors in the Western world are adamant must be obtained not to produce a sham trial, but to find guilt or innocence based on acceptable proofs. Handed over to Iraq, the two would be certain to be summarily executed.

El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey, two parts of a four-part cell of ISIL members implicated in the beheadings of hostages, and whose verbal intonations led their captives to call them "the Beatles", in recognition of their British accents, were scheduled to receive the death penalty as a result of being placed on trial in the United States, which had taken the two men off the hands of their Kurdish captors, glad to be rid of them from the stable of thousands of ISIL members apprehended and held in Kurdish controlled camps.

The case against the two has been held up in recognition of litigation where Elsheikh's mother has sued in Britain to prevent evidence sharing, inclusive of voice analysis which ties the men to the hostages, and details relating to their journey from Britain to Syria. In response to the U.S. administration's grudging agreement not to impose the death penalty, however, a Home Office spokesperson responded: "Legal proceedings are ongoing before the Supreme Court and we are prevented by a court order from transferring the evidence to the U.S. at this time".

Alexanda Kotey (left) and Elshafee Elsheikh, captured ISIS members from a cell commonly known as the Beatles, at a Syrian Democratic Forces location in Northern Syria.

Alexanda Kotey (left) Elshafee Elsheikh, at a SDF location in Northern Syria

The beheading on camera of U.S. journalist James Foley in 2014, initiated a series of brutal executions, some of them beheadings, crucifixions, immersive cage drownings, death by explosives, and other imaginative cruelties that transfixed the international community with each release of a fresh new video of yet another atrocious act of inhumanity. That initial video with James Foley kneeling in an orange jumpsuit caused his family huge anguish, even as incredulity at the raw barbarism ignited public outrage.

The masked executioner whose blade severed the victims' heads from their bodies spoke with a British accent and was identified early in 2015 as Mohammed Emwazi; soon to be named "Jihadi John", himself killed in a drone strike that same fall. The four Londoners, according to former hostages who survived their ordeals, subjected them to repeated beatings, waterboarding and mock executions. The fourth member of the quartet, Aine David was convicted in Turkey in 2017 to serve a 7-year prison sentence.

"I am very grateful to hear that the attorney general has reached out to the Home Secretary. This feels like a gift from God and our son Jim, who was brutally murdered six years ago today", said Diane Foley, journalist James Foley's mother. Britain had stripped Elsheikh and Kotey of their citizenship with the conviction that undergoing a trial in the United States for terrorism would reflect the best approach. Then-Home Secretary Sajid Javid agreed in 2018 to share evidence gathered by the British.

Which inspired Elsheikh's mother to sue for the purpose of halting the transfer of evidence to the U.S. The families of the murdered hostages have placed the U.S. government under relentless pressure to mount a prosecution, seeking some form of justice and closure on the horrible deaths of their loved ones. Both men claim not to have known that the hostages they themselves tortured would be murdered until the beheading of Mr. Foley on camera. "At the time there wasn't much anyone could do about it", said Kotey.