American Hostage Deaths: Member Of ISIS Terror Group ‘Beatles’ Guilty, Faces Penalty Of Up To Life In Prison
Earlier on Thursday, the jury deliberated for four hours before returning a guilty verdict on all charges against Elsheikh, The New York Post reported.
New Delhi: A federal jury in Virginia has convicted El Shafee Elsheikh, one of a group of UK-born ISIS terrorists known as “The Beatles”, of joining a hostage-taking scheme, which led to the killing of four Americans.
Earlier on Thursday, the jury deliberated for four hours before returning a guilty verdict on all charges against Elsheikh, The New York Post reported.
33-year-old Elsheikh now faces a possible penalty of up to life in prison.
Elsheikh’s trial featured sickening testimony from surviving hostages and family members of the victims’ journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller.
Earlier in 2014, Foley, Sotloff and Kassig were beheaded in keeping with the Beatles theme by an executioner dressed in all black and dubbed “Jihadi John”.
The murders’ videos, which were posted online by the terror group, quickly spread across the world.
Mueller was raped multiple times by ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before she was killed by blunt force trauma in early 2015.
The ISIS has, however, said that she died in a US drone strike, a claim disputed by Washington.
The four Americans were among the 26 hostages taken captive between 2012 and 2015 when the ISIS controlled large swaths of Iraq and Syria.
Acknowledging that Elsheikh had joined the ISIS, the defense lawyers argued that prosecutors failed to prove he was a “Beatle”.
Elsheikh, who prosecutors initially suggested had the nickname “Ringo,” was found guilty even though none of the surviving hostages could identify him or their other captors.
This came as the terrorists took pains to hide their faces behind masks and ordered their hostages to not look them in the eye on pain of a beating.
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