{"id":21636,"date":"2022-03-29T18:40:01","date_gmt":"2022-03-29T22:40:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=21636"},"modified":"2022-03-29T18:40:01","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29T22:40:01","slug":"jury-selection-starts-in-is-beatle-jihadist-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2022\/03\/29\/jury-selection-starts-in-is-beatle-jihadist-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Jury selection starts in IS Beatle jihadist trial"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A British-born man who was one of the so-called Islamic State Beatles is on trial in a US federal court, accused of hostage-taking and conspiring to murder several Western journalists and aid workers.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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El Shafee Elsheikh is alleged to be one of a group of IS fighters from Britain who tortured hostages in Syria and posted execution videos.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He is the last of the group to be brought to justice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Who were the IS Beatles?<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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All four grew up in west London. They volunteered to fight for the Islamic State group in Syria and ended up guarding Western hostages.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Hostages dubbed them the Beatles because of their English accents and nicknamed them separately as John, Paul, George and Ringo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Three are still living – Aine Davis, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mohammed Emwazi, who was known as Jihadi John, was killed in Syria, in 2015.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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US authorities say the group beheaded 27 hostages. Videos of the executions were sent around the world, causing outrage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Hostages also recall the group torturing with electric shocks, waterboarding and mock executions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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They were\u00a0“thugs with no knowledge of what is religion at all”<\/a>, Spanish journalist and former hostage Javier Espinosa told BBC News, in 2017.<\/p>\n

\"IS<\/a>
Mohammed Emwazi, Aine Davis, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh (l to r)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Who is El Shafee Elsheikh?<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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El Shafee Elsheikh, 33, is the son of Sudanese refugees who came to Britain. He went to Syria in 2012 and joined al-Qaeda before signing up with IS.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Hostages called him Jihadi George and say as the main guard, he carried out most of the torture.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Elsheikh was captured by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, in January 2018, as they overran the last pieces of IS-controlled territory in Syria.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He is\u00a0charged with taking hostages<\/a>, resulting in the deaths of four Americans – journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid workers Kayla Mueller and Peter Kassig.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Clockwise<\/span><\/div>
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Clockwise from top left: Abdul-Rahman Kassig, Steven Sotloff, James Foley, Kenji Goto, David Haines, Alan Henning<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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 <\/p>\n

Elsheikh is also charged with conspiring in the deaths of the British aid workers\u00a0David Haines<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Alan Henning<\/a>, and Japanese journalists Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He was stripped of his British citizenship in 2018.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Elsheikh denies being part of the cell with the other three British fighters but admits joining IS in Syria.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Who are the other IS Beatles?<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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\"Undated<\/span><\/div>
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Emwazi, thought to be the group’s ringleader, was killed after an intensive manhunt in 2015<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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 <\/p>\n

Mohammed Emwazi<\/b>, dubbed\u00a0Jihadi John<\/b>, fronted an number of videos showing executed hostages.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Born in Kuwait, his family moved to the UK when he was six years old, in 1988. He graduated from the University of Westminster, in 2009, in computer programming.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Throughout 2014, Emwazi was shown, with his face disguised, in a number of videos where Western hostages appeared to be beheaded.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A top target for intelligence services,\u00a0he was killed in a joint US-British drone strike in Syria, in November 2015<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Read more on Emwazi<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Aine<\/span><\/div>
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Davis was jailed for seven and a half years, in Turkey, last year<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Aine Davis<\/b>\u00a0lived in Hammersmith. He had a number of drug convictions and was jailed in 2006 for possessing a firearm.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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After converting to Islam, Davis changed his name to Hamza and met Emwazi. The two were part of a group that radicalised Muslims living in London. Davis left the UK to join IS in 2013.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Arrested near Istanbul, in 2015, he was convicted, in Turkey, in 2017, of being a senior member of a terrorist organisation and sentenced to seven and a half years in prison.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Read more on Davis.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Alexanda<\/span><\/div>
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Kotey was one of two men reportedly “unmasked” by media reports in 2016<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Alexanda Kotey<\/b>\u00a0is of Ghanaian and Greek Cypriot background and attended the same al-Manaar mosque in west London as Emwazi.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He was captured in Syria by Kurdish forces, alongside Elsheikh.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In September 2021, in a US federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, Kotey pleaded guilty to eight criminal charges including lethal hostage-taking and conspiracy to support terrorists.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He admitted involvement in Mr Sotloff’s death, as well as the murders of Mr Foley, Ms Mueller and Mr Kassig.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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These offences carry the death penalty – but US authorities have told Britain they will not execute Kotey.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Instead, he faces life imprisonment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He has been stripped of British citizenship.<\/p>\n

Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A British-born man who was one of the so-called Islamic State Beatles is on trial in a US federal court, accused of hostage-taking and conspiring to murder several Western journalists and aid workers. El Shafee […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4,3],"tags":[4841,3205,4855,5978,1097,8431],"class_list":{"0":"post-21636","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-uk","9":"category-usa","10":"tag-el-shafee-elsheikh","11":"tag-executions","12":"tag-is-beatles","13":"tag-islamic-state-group","14":"tag-syria","15":"tag-syrian-civil-war","16":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21636"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21640,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21636\/revisions\/21640"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}