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Police photos of the convicted IS terrorists from the »Beatles« cell El Shafee Elsheikh (left) and Alexanda Amon Kotey (right)
Photo: HANDOUT/ AFP
In the United States, a former member of a cell of the terrorist militia "Islamic State" (IS) known as the "Beatles" has been sentenced to life imprisonment.
The sentence against former British citizen Alexanda Amon Kotey was announced on Friday by a federal court in Alexandria, near the US capital Washington.
The 38-year-old was involved in the kidnapping and murder of US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and US development workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller.
He had pleaded guilty in September.
The charges included conspiracy to take hostages resulting in death, hostage-taking resulting in death, conspiracy to murder US citizens and conspiracy to assist a terrorist group.
In the case two weeks ago, the jihadist El Shafee Elsheikh, who also belonged to the "Beatles" cell, was found guilty on all charges.
The sentence against the 33-year-old will not be announced until August, and he too faces life imprisonment.
The two men had belonged to a jihadist group in Syria, which their hostages dubbed the "Beatles" because of the British accent of their members.
Probably the best-known member of the »Beatles« was the Briton Mohammed Emwazi aka »Jihadi John«, who was killed in a drone attack in 2015.
The group is said to have been involved in the kidnapping of at least 27 people between 2012 and 2015.
The hostages came from Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Sweden and Spain, among others.
IS propaganda videos showed Emwazi beheading journalists Foley and Sotloff.
Elsheikh and Kotey were captured by Kurdish forces in Syria in early 2018, later taken to Iraq and finally to the United States in October 2020.
Britain stripped them of their British citizenship.
jso/AFP
