He was part of a group of kidnappers nicknamed ” the Beatles “. The jihadist Alexanda Kotey has just been sentenced this Friday, April 29 to life imprisonment by a federal court in the United States. The former British national pleaded guilty last September admitting responsibility for the deaths of four American hostages in Syria.
Another member of this cell, El Shafee el-Sheikh, arrested with him by Syrian Kurdish forces in 2018, was convicted in April after a grueling trial and will be sentenced this summer. The two men were present Friday in the court of Alexandria, near Washington, where the relatives of their victims were able to speak one last time.
“You both lost”
“You have kidnapped, tortured and participated in the murders of good and innocent people, and you will now have to live with this all your life”notably launched the Briton Bethany Haines, daughter of one of the victims.
“You both lost!” »added the young woman, whose father David Haines, an aid worker, was beheaded by the third member of the « Beatles »Mohammed Emwazi, killed by a drone attack in 2015. This nickname had been given to the three jihadists, who grew up and became radicalized in London, by their hostages because of their British accent.
Active in Syria from 2012 to 2015, they oversaw the detention of at least 27 journalists and aid workers from the United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Japan, New Zealand and Russia.
A dozen were executed and their deaths had been staged in Daesh propaganda videos that shocked the whole world.