Last week, El Shafee Elsheikh, the U.S.-designated British member of the ISIS
cell known as the “The Beatles,” was found guilty of conspiracy related


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U.S. Court Convicts El Shafee Elsheikh For ISIS Murders Of Four Americans   

 

(New York, N.Y.) — Last week, El Shafee Elsheikh
<[link removed]>, the
U.S.-designated British member of the ISIS cell known as the “The Beatles,” was
found guilty of conspiracy related to the kidnapping and torture that led to
the murder of four American hostages. The hostages James Foley, Steven Sotloff,
and Peter Kassig were beheaded, and Kayla Mueller was enslaved and tortured for
a year and a half before being killed by the terrorist group. Nearly eight
years after ISIS released videos of the beheadings acrosssocial media
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eight charges, including four counts of hostage-taking resulting in death,
murder conspiracy, and conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist
organization. Elsheikh faces a life sentence and is scheduled to be sentenced
on August 12.

 

“The brutal and violent deaths of hostages at the hands of ISIS, and the
propagation of them on social media afterwards, was a tragic and avoidable
occurrence,” said Counter Extremism Project (CEP) Senior Director Dr.
Hans-Jakob Schindler, formerly the coordinator of the U.N. Security Council’s
ISIL (Da’esh), al-Qaida, and Taliban Sanctions Monitoring Team. “Although
progress has been made by tech companies in the years since then, ISIS has
found more ways to leverage technology to its advantage. Terrorism that is
further fueled by online tools must remain a core concern in order to prevent a
similar occurrence. This industry has been exempted from legal responsibility
for the harm their services cause for far too long. Only through effective
regulation that creates legal and commercial incentives for these companies to
do better in defending their sites against terrorists’ misuse can this issue be
addressed sustainably and effectively.”

 

Led by deceased ISIS executioner Mohammed Emwazi, a.k.a. Jihadi John, The
Beatles also included British citizens Aine Davis and Alexanda Amon Kotey.
Together with Elsheikh, the four were responsible for holding captive and
beheading 27 hostages. Emwazi was killed in a 2015 drone strike in Syria, and
Kotey pleaded guilty to his own charges last September. Davis is currently
imprisoned in Turkey.

 

According to the Guardian
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, prosecutors told the jury during the trial that Elsheikh was a “senior leader
who took particular pleasure in mistreating the hostages he held captive.”
Based on testimonies of hostage survivors, it was revealed that Elsheikh took
pleasure in brutally abusing those he held captive. Additionally, Didier
Francois—a French journalist held prisoner by The Beatles for 10 months—told
CNN in 2015
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that The Beatles would regularly stage fake executions. In its announcement
that it had designated Elsheikh, the U.S. Department of Statestated
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that he had “a reputation for waterboarding, mock executions, and crucifixions
while serving as an ISIS jailer.”

 

To read CEP’s profile El Shafee Elsheikh, please click here
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To read CEP’s resource ISIS, please click here
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