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"Jihadi George", the cruelest of the "Beatles" of the Islamic State, in front of American justice

2022-03-30T03:47:41.735Z


The 33-year-old man is accused of being part of a cell of foreign fighters from the Islamic State group in Syria.


Jihadist El Shafee el-Sheikh, on trial in the United States for his role in the kidnapping and death of Western hostages in Syria, left his captives with the memory of an angry and brutal man who had the upper hand over peers.

This 33-year-old man, with a long curly beard, is accused of being part of a cell of foreign fighters from the Islamic State (IS) group nicknamed "The Beatles" by their prisoners because of their British accent.

Read alsoIn France, the delicate follow-up of “children of jihad”

In this quartet, suspected of having captured at least 27 journalists and humanitarians in Syria between 2012 and 2015, he was "George".

Despite his acne and his young age, he was

"the craziest, the most brutal

," recalls Spanish reporter Javier Espinosa, who spent three months under their thumb.

“He had a deep rooted hatred of the West and Westerners.”

Mohammed Emwazi, nicknamed "Jihadi John", made an even greater impression by appearing, dressed all in black and with a butcher's knife, on IS propaganda videos.

But this jihadist, who died in a bombardment in 2015,

"was only the muscles"

, estimates the former Spanish hostage in an interview with AFP:

"He was George the leader: he decided who should live or die."

Born in 1988 in Sudan, El Shafee el-Sheikh came to the UK as a child.

A time enrolled in a youth program supported by the British army, he had become a mechanic.

At 21, he married an Ethiopian he met while traveling in Canada, but the British immigration services did not allow his wife to return to the United Kingdom, according to the Counterextremism project website.

He quickly poured into radical Islamism.

In 2011 he was arrested outside the US Embassy in London for taking part in a protest

'against the US Crusades'

.

A year later, he set sail for Syria with Mohamed Emwazi.

According to the indictment, he immediately procured an AK-47 assault rifle and fought in the ranks of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front before joining ISIS .

"You're next!"

Between 2012 and 2015, he was

"one of the leaders of a cell specializing in hostage taking"

and

"indulged in physical and psychological violence"

on his captives, according to this document.

The hostages have, according to American justice, endured different forms of torture: simulated drowning, compulsory fights between them, electric shock to the torso and extremities, deprivation of food or sleep... El Shafee el-Sheikh showed himself particularly sadist: after having filmed the execution of a Syrian prisoner in front of a group of European hostages, he had launched to one of them:

“You are the next!”

"George liked to heat himself up until he couldn't control himself anymore"

,

Read alsoSyria: two IS jihadists nicknamed “Beatles” must be transferred to the United States on Wednesday

In January 2018, the jihadist was captured by Syrian Kurdish forces along with Alexanda Kotey, alias "Ringo".

Before being handed over to US forces and transferred to Iraq, the two men gave several interviews to foreign media.

In a video interview still online on the

Washington Post

website , El Shafee el-Sheikh admits having

"interacted"

with several foreign hostages, whose names he cites, and not having shown

"compassion"

towards them.

However, he describes himself as

"a subordinate, not a leader"

, having had the task of collecting the e-mail addresses of their relatives to negotiate the ransoms, but not to interrogate them.

As for the violence attributed to him,

"it's nonsense"

, he swears.

In 2020, the two men, stripped of their British nationality, were transferred from Iraq to the United States, after Washington had promised not to seek the death penalty against them.

Alexanda Kotey has since pleaded guilty, hoping to be able to serve part of her sentence in the UK.

El Shafee el-Sheikh maintains that he is not guilty.

The jurors will decide in about a month.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2022-03-30

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