El Shafee Elsheikh, who was formally sentenced to life in jail Friday for a number one position within the beheading deaths of American hostages, had a considerably whimsical nickname as a so-called “Beatle” that belied the viciousness of his conduct.
In truth, he’s essentially the most infamous and highest-ranking member of the Islamic State group to ever be convicted in a U.S. courtroom, prosecutors mentioned at his sentencing listening to in U.S. District Court in Alexandria.
Elsheikh and British counterparts Alexanda Kotey and Mohammed Emwazi led an Islamic State hostage-taking scheme that took roughly two dozen Westerners captive a decade in the past. The hostages dubbed them Beatles due to their accents. Their look, at all times in masks, invoked dread among the many hostages for the sadism they displayed.
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“This prosecution unmasked the barbaric and sadistic ISIS Beatles,” mentioned First Assistant U.S. Attorney Raj Parekh.
The life sentence was a foregone conclusion after a jury convicted him of hostage taking leading to demise and different crimes earlier this yr.
The convictions carried a compulsory life sentence. The U.S. agreed to not pursue a demise sentence as a part of a deal that ensured extradition of Elsheikh and his pal, Kotey, who has already been sentenced to life. Emwazi was killed in a drone strike.
The convictions revolved across the deaths of 4 American hostages: James Foley, Steven Sotloff,Peter Kassig, and Kayla Mueller. All however Mueller had been executed in videotaped beheadings circulated on-line. Mueller was compelled into slavery and raped a number of occasions by Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi earlier than she was killed.
They had been amongst 26 hostages taken captive between 2012 and 2015, when the Islamic State group managed giant swaths of Iraq and Syria.
Parekh mentioned it was tough to convey the brutality of Elsheikh’s actions. “We lack the vocabulary of such pain,” he mentioned, paraphrasing Dante’s Inferno.
Still, victims of Elsheikh and the Beatles testified at Friday’s listening to and gave voice to what they skilled. Danish photographer Daniel Rye Ottosen, who was launched after a ransom was paid, mentioned the worst moments had been occasions of silence throughout and after captivity when he was alone along with his ideas.
He mentioned when Elsheikh and the Beatles beat him up, it was nearly a reduction.
“I knew I could only concentrate on my pain, which is much easier than being alone with your thoughts,” he mentioned.
Ottosen was significantly near Foley, and memorized a goodbye letter that Foley wrote to his household so he may dictate it to Foley’s dad and mom when he was launched.
Foley’s mom, Diane Foley, mentioned holding Elsheikh accountable at trial sends a message of deterrence to different would-be hostage takers.
“Hatred truly overwhelmed your humanity,” she instructed Elsheikh on Friday, which was the eighth anniversary of James Foley’s beheading.
At trial, surviving hostages testified that they dreaded the Beatles’ look on the varied prisons to which they had been continuously shuttled and relocated. Elsheikh and the opposite Beatles performed a key position within the hostage negotiations, getting hostages to electronic mail their households with calls for for funds.
They additionally routinely beat and tortured the hostages, forcing them to battle one another to the purpose of passing out, threatening them with waterboarding and forcing them view photographs of slain hostages.
Elsheikh, 34, didn’t converse throughout Friday’s listening to. His lawyer, Zachary Deubler, mentioned Elsheikh will enchantment his conviction. Elsheikh’s legal professionals had argued that his confessions ought to have been dominated inadmissible due to alleged mistreatment after he was captured by Kurdish-led Syrian Defense Forces in 2018.
At Friday’s listening to, Deubler confined his arguments to a request that Elsheikh not be despatched to the supermax jail facility in Florence, Colorado, the place he would face solitary confinement for the remainder of his life. Deubler mentioned a designation to Florence is sort of a certainty except the decide recommends in any other case.
Judge TS Ellis III declined to make any suggestion to the Bureau of Prisons.
“The behavior of this defendant and his co-defendant can only be described as horrific, barbaric, brutal, callous and, of course, criminal,” Ellis mentioned.
Outside courtroom, Mueller’s dad and mom mentioned they’re nonetheless in search of details about her demise and to get better her stays. Carl Mueller mentioned he couldn’t assist however replicate on the disparate outcomes for European hostages — who had been launched after ransoms had been paid — and American hostages who had been killed as a result of the U.S. refuses to pay ransom.
“Hopefully our government in the future will do like so many others do, and get them home, not leave them,” he mentioned.
The Muellers and Diane Foley each mentioned they’ve been capable of meet with Kotey, whose responsible plea requires him to satisfy with households. Marsha Mueller declined to touch upon her dialog.
Dian Foley mentioned she met with Kotey three completely different occasions, and it was helpful to her.
“I was able to share some of who Jim was and he was able to share some of why he felt it was a war situation and his excuses,” Foley mentioned. “But he did articulate some remorse and and I was grateful for that.”
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