El Shafee Elsheikh -- a former British member of the 'ISIS aristocracy,' per witnesses -- was convicted on all eight charges by jurors in the Eastern District of Virginia.
A member of the notorious “Beatles” cell of ISIS was found guilty Thursday of participating in the murders of four Americans in Syria.
After a three-week trial, El Shafee Elsheikh, 33 — a former British member of the “ISIS aristocracy,” per witnesses — was convicted on all eight charges by jurors in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The charges included lethal hostage-taking and conspiracy to commit murder.
Though Elsheikh is eligible for the death penalty, lead federal prosecutor Raj Parekh instead plans to seek a life sentence, per an agreement with the U.K. for their extradition to stand trial in the U.S.
Between 2012 and 2015, Elsheikh along with three other British ISIS members — Alexenda Kotey, Aine Lesley Davis, and Mohammad Emwazi, the latter known as “Jihadi John” — captured 26 Western nationals.
While several were released in exchange for ransom, all American hostages were executed in beheadings live-streamed on the internet for propaganda purposes. These included journalists James Foley (the first American killed by ISIS) and Steven Soltoff as well as aid worker Peter Kassig. The killings made international headlines.
The fourth American hostage, human rights activist Kayla Mueller, was presented to then-ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, who enslaved and repeatedly raped her before she was killed. Al-Baghdadi was killed in a U.S. military operation in 2019 named in Mueller’s honor.
In their case against Elsheikh, prosecutors alleged that he and the Beatles tortured hostages with regular beatings, stress positions, and forcing hostages to fight each other until they collapsed.
Witnesses — including former hostages, ISIS fighters and the parents of victims — pointed out that the Beatles were distinguished within the organization for their cruelty. Elshiekh’s lawyers, meanwhile, argued that while he had joined ISIS, he was a “simple fighter” and not part of the group. The cell’s name is said by witnesses to have come from their British accents, habit of speaking in English, and forcing of hostages to rewrite popular music with Jihadist themes: e.g., Hotel California to “Hotel Osama,” which hostages were forced to sing.
Among Elsheikh’s colleagues in the group, Kotey had pleaded guilty to similar charges last year and is serving a life sentence. Davis was convicted on terrorism charges in Turkey and is presently imprisoned. Emwazi, who performed the executions of hostages on camera, was killed in a drone strike in 2016. A date for Elsheikh’s sentencing has not been set.