A US federal judge sentenced the jihadist to life in prison on Friday Alexandra Koteya member of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group who was part of the cell known as the “Beatles“, for carrying out kidnappings of Westerners in Syria, who in some cases ended up being killed and even beheaded.
Kotey was sentenced after reaching an agreement with judicial authorities in September whereby pleaded guilty and will be transferred to the United Kingdom, where his relatives live, to serve life imprisonment after first passing 15 years in prison in the US.
The convicted man was part of a cell known as the “Beatles” because of his British accent, which participated in the kidnapping in Syria of Western journalists, including Spaniards Javier Espinosa, Ricard García Vilanova and Marc Marginedas.
District Judge TS Ellis ruled against Kotey in a court in Alexandria, Virginia, outside of Washington DC, justifying life imprisonment because the defendant has committed “the most serious crimes that can be perpetrated“.
According to court documents, it is estimated that between November 2011 and February 2015, Kotey, born in the United Kingdom but whose British citizenship was taken away by the authorities like the rest of the “Beatles”, He was an IS militant in Syria and was involved in kidnapping of American and European hostages.
Specifically, Kotey participated in the kidnapping, retention and negotiation for the frustrated release of four American hostages: the journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff; and the cooperators Kayla Mueller and Peter Kassigall of them killed during their captivity.
Foley, Sotloff and Kassig were beheaded and their deaths were recorded on video as propaganda, while Mueller was selected by the IS chief, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadito be her personal hostage, a period in which she was repeatedly raped before being murdered.
US court documents indicate that the condemned man was also involved in the kidnapping of British, Italian, Danish and German. Kotey and his fellow “Beatles” were in charge of supervising IS prisons where hostages were held and subjected to physical and psychological violencein addition to exposing them to the murders of others kidnapped by the extremists.
One of his accomplices El Shafee Elsheikh, He awaits sentencing in the US after being found guilty by the same court, since he has not reached an agreement like Kotey. Both were captured in January 2018 by Syrian Kurdish forces while trying to escape from Syria to Turkey.
Another member of the IS “Beatles”, Mohammed Emwaziwho was in charge of beheading the hostages, died in November 2015 in a US bombing in Syria.
Source: Lasexta
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