Alexandria, Virginia — El Shafee Elsheikh, one of many three British males accused of working a brutal ISIS hostage-taking scheme, was convicted on all counts by a federal jury in Virginia for his function within the plot which led to the deaths of 4 Individuals.
The jury in Alexandria, Virginia, discovered Elsheikh responsible on eight fees, together with 4 counts of hostage taking leading to dying, homicide conspiracy and conspiracy to supply materials assist to a terrorist group. He faces life in jail, with sentencing scheduled for August 12.
Collectively often known as the "Beatles" for his or her British accents, Elsheikh and his co-conspirators Mohammed Emwazi and Alexanda Kotey labored collectively to kidnap and abuse greater than two dozen Western hostages, in accordance with prosecutors. He was convicted for collaborating within the plot that led to the deaths of American hostages James Foley, Peter Kassig, Kayla Mueller and Steven Sotloff.
"This defendant put the fear in terrorism himself," First Assistant U.S. Lawyer Raj Parekh stated throughout closing arguments on Wednesday.
Foley, Kassig and Sotloff had been all beheaded in a sequence of ugly ISIS propaganda movies and pictures launched in 2014. ISIS had claimed Mueller was killed in a 2015 airstrike whereas she was in Syria, however prosecutors Wednesday stated they now imagine ISIS killed her after holding her as a slave and sexually abusing her for a yr and a half.
Elsheikh was not accused of finishing up the act of killing the hostages himself, however was charged with collaborating within the kidnapping and torture that led to the murders of the hostages.
Diane Foley, James Foley's mom, and Carl Mueller, Kayla Mueller's father, spoke to reporters following the decision. Each had been happy that justice had been executed.
"I feel that there is a reduction. This has been fairly an ordeal. Actually exhausting for a lot of households. Emotionally exhausting and bodily," Diane Foley stated. "I'd hope these 4 younger Individuals would encourage different younger Individuals to have that sort of braveness. That ethical braveness to dare to exit on the earth, care about others, report the reality."
Carl Mueller stated the story of what occurred to the victims "must be instructed technology after technology and never forgotten."
"It is a small piece of justice that may assist us heal a little bit, however I do not assume there'll ever be closure," he stated. "We're all shut. I seek advice from it many instances as a membership that no person needs to be in. As a result of circumstances out of our management we're on this membership."
Elsheikh and Kotey had been finally captured collectively and held by Syrian Protection Forces earlier than Britain agreed to extradite them to the U.S. for trial. Kotey has agreed to plead responsible in alternate for a life sentence. Emwazi, often known as "Jihadi John" and because the determine who carried out most of the hostage executions, was killed in Syria in 2015.
Throughout the trial, protection lawyer Nina Ginsberg didn't deny Elsheikh had traveled to Syria and joined ISIS or that he knew Emwazi and Kotey. Nevertheless, she contended that the federal government didn't show that Elsheikh was one of many three Beatles. The protection claims he's simply an ISIS soldier.
"Mr. Elsheikh was by no means recognized on this courtroom by any of the previous hostages," Ginsberg stated.