UK may not oppose US death penalty for ISIS ‘Beatles’, letter says

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In a letter to US Attorney General Jeff Sessions last month, disclosed in Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper Monday, British Home Secretary Sajid Javid said that Britain would not demand “assurances” that two members of the terror cell would not receive the death penalty.

However, Downing Street on Monday insisted that UK policy is to “oppose the death penalty in all circumstances as a matter of principle” and that discussions were ongoing with the US about the case.

The letter, dated June 22, refers to the case of Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh — part of a four-man ISIS cell nicknamed “the Beatles” for their British accents — who are believed to be responsible for beheading high-profile Western hostages in Syria and Iraq.

CNN understands the leaked letter is accurate but that the focus is on federal prosecution in the US, not Kotey and Elsheikh ending up in the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.

Capital punishment is illegal in the UK, and Javid’s letter contradicts previous policy on seeking assurances about the death penalty.

In the letter, Javid said he was willing to make an exception in the case of Kotey and Elsheikh: “I am of the view that there are strong reasons for not requiring a death penalty assurance in this specific case, so no such assurances will be sought.”

“As you are aware, it is the long held position of the UK to seek death penalty assurances, and our decision in this case does not reflect a change in our policy on assistance in US death penalty cases generally, nor the UK Government’s stance on the global abolition of the death penalty,” the letter continued.

The two ISIS fighters, whose cell was fronted by Mohammed Emwazi, also known as Jihadi John, were captured in January and are now being held by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. Emwazi was killed in a drone strike in 2015.
The pair are believed to have been stripped of their British citizenship and are among dozens of foreign-born ISIS fighters in the region seemingly left in limbo as their countries of origin wrangle over responsibility — often refusing to sanction their return to their countries of origin to stand trial.

Indeed, while Javid’s letter says the UK is “committed to assisting the US with a federal prosecution of Kotey and El-Sheikh,” it also says the UK does not intend to request their transfer home for prosecution.

The Home Secretary added that given the high profile of the fighters, they could also be “held up as an example of how we treat and deal with alleged ISIS fighters.”

Four-man executioners

The group gained notoriety in 2014 and 2015 for a string of brutal propaganda videos, in which they demanded millions of dollars in ransom to spare the lives of foreign hostages, many of them journalists and aid workers. Few of the ransoms were met, and instead the hostages were beheaded.

Fourth cell member Aine Davis was convicted of being a member of a terrorist organization by a court in Turkey in 2017 and jailed for seven-and-a-half years.

Among their victims was beheaded American journalist James Foley, and on Monday his mother Diane told the BBC’s Today program that the death penalty would “just make them martyrs in their twisted ideology.”

“I would like them held accountable by being sent to prison for the rest of their lives,” she added.

The UK Home Office refused to comment on the leaked letter, but said in a statement: “We continue to engage with the US government on this issue, as we do on a range of national security issues and in the context of our joint determination to tackle international terrorism and combat violent extremism.”

It added, “The UK government’s position on Guantanamo Bay is that the detention facility should close.”



Source : Nbcnewyork