{"id":1410311,"date":"2022-03-30T13:46:10","date_gmt":"2022-03-30T17:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1410311"},"modified":"2022-03-30T13:46:15","modified_gmt":"2022-03-30T17:46:15","slug":"u-s-prosecutors-accuse-alleged-isis-beatle-of-brutal-hostage-taking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/u-s-prosecutors-accuse-alleged-isis-beatle-of-brutal-hostage-taking\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. prosecutors accuse alleged ISIS \u2018Beatle\u2019 of \u2018brutal hostage-taking\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fu-s-prosecutors-accuse-alleged-isis-beatle-of-brutal-hostage-taking%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1410311&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>FILE PHOTO: Shafee Elsheikh, who the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) claim is a British national, is seen in this undated handout picture in Amouda, Syria released February 9, 2018. Syrian Democratic Forces\/Handout via REUTERS\/File Photo<\/div>\n<p>March 30, 2022<\/p>\n<p>By Jan Wolfe<\/p>\n<p>ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) \u2013     A former British national accused of engaging in \u201cbrutal hostage-taking\u201d as an alleged member of an Islamic State cell nicknamed \u201cthe Beatles\u201d appeared in a U.S. federal court on Wednesday for the start of his criminal trial.<\/p>\n<p>El Shafee Elsheikh, 33, is standing trial in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside Washington, on charges including lethal hostage-taking and conspiracy to commit murder.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. authorities have said Elsheikh was one of four ISIS militants belonging to the cell, which operated in Iraq and Syria, and whose member were nicknamed \u201cthe Beatles\u201d for their British accents. <\/p>\n<p>The cell garnered international attention after releasing videos of the murders of U.S. journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid workers Kayla Mueller and Peter Kassig, among other victims, in 2012 through 2015.<\/p>\n<p>In a brief opening statement at Elsheikh\u2019s trial, his defense lawyer, Edward MacMahon, told jurors that he would not minimize the violence hostages endured but rather cast doubt on Elsheikh\u2019s legal responsibility for those acts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was horrific and senseless. None of that is in dispute,\u201d MacMahon said. \u201cWhat is in dispute \u2014 and what you must decide \u2014 is whether Mr. Elsheikh bears any legal responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis will oversee the trial, which is expected to last three or four weeks and will include testimony from released hostages.<\/p>\n<p>In his opening statement to jurors, prosecutor John Gibbs said Elsheikh \u201cplayed a role in a brutal hostage-taking scheme\u201d that included gruesome acts of torture.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe do not intend to display the most graphic evidence publicly,\u201d Gibbs said, adding that jurors would be able to view beheading videos and other horrific photographic evidence during their deliberations.<\/p>\n<p>MacMahon said during his remarks that the \u201cBeatles\u201d all shared similar British accents and characteristics, and discrepancies in the testimony of released hostages means Elsheikh cannot be conclusively identified as a member of the terrorist cell.<\/p>\n<p>Elsheikh and another member of the cell, Alexanda Kotey, were held in Iraq by the U.S. military before being flown to the United States to face trial. <\/p>\n<p>Mohammed Emwazi, a British citizen who oversaw the executions, died in a drone strike in 2015. Aine Lesley Davis, the group\u2019s fourth member, was convicted in Turkey on terrorism charges and jailed.<\/p>\n<p>Kotey pleaded guilty in September 2021 to the murders of Foley, Kassig, Sotloff, and Mueller. He will be sentenced next month.<\/p>\n<p>Kotey and Elsheikh were citizens of the United Kingdom, but the British government withdrew their citizenship.<\/p>\n<p>The charges against Elsheikh carry a potential death sentence, but U.S. prosecutors have advised British officials that they will not seek the death penalty against Elsheikh or Kotey.<\/p>\n<p> (Reporting by Jan Wolfe; editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan Oatis)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FILE PHOTO: Shafee Elsheikh, who the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) claim is a British national, is seen in this undated handout picture in Amouda, Syria released February 9, 2018. Syrian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":287,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1410311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1410311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/287"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1410311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1410311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1410311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1410311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1410311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}