One of the suspected members of an Islamic State (IS) kidnapping group dubbed the “Beatles,” which specializes in capturing, torturing and executing Western hostages, is in front of the British on Thursday morning, hours after his arrest on British soil Justice appeared.
After a brief hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court in London, Aine Leslie Davis, 38, was held in custody with the judge stressing his “tendency to travel with false documents”. The latter wore a short beard and a gray T-shirt and only spoke to identify himself. The next preliminary hearing is scheduled for September 2 in court at the Old Bailey.
He was arrested at London’s Luton Airport from Turkey on Wednesday night and charged on arrival on British soil with 2014 terrorism financing offenses and 2013-2014 possession of a firearm “for terrorism-related purposes,” a said Spokesman for the anti-terror prosecutor’s office.
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According to prosecutors, Aine Leslie Davis was expelled by the Turkish authorities. Following an arrest warrant issued by British courts in January 2015, he was arrested in Turkey in November 2015.
kidnappings, torture and murders
The four members of the “Beatles”, where Davis would be “Paul” and therefore received nicknames from their hostages because of their British accent, are accused of kidnapping at least 27 journalists and humanitarian workers from the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe , New Zealand, Russia and Japan.
They are also suspected of torturing and beheading American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and aides Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller. IS had posted propaganda videos on social media showing their executions.
The best known of the group, Mohamed Emwazi, aka “Jihadi John”, was killed by an American drone in Syria in 2015. The other two jihadists in this cell, Alexanda Kotey (38, “Ringo”) and El-Shafee El – Sheikh (34, “George”), a former British national, were arrested in January 2018 by a Kurdish militia in Syria and the US -Handed over to forces in Iraq before being sent to Britain.
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They were eventually extradited to the United States, to Virginia, in 2020 on charges of taking hostages, conspiring to kill American citizens and supporting a foreign terrorist organization. In April, Mr. Kotey pleaded guilty to his part in the kidnapping and death of the four American hostages and was sentenced to life in prison. El-Shafee El-Sheikh was also found guilty. He faces a life sentence and his sentence is due next week.
“They saw themselves as special forces of the caliphate”
In 2014, Aine Leslie Davis’ wife Amal El-Wahabi became the first person in the UK to be convicted of funding IS jihadists for trying to send her husband €20,000 in Syria. During her trial, after which she was imprisoned for 28 months, her husband was portrayed as a drug dealer before he left for Syria.
The “Beatles” had built a solid reputation for atrocities, synonymous with prestige within the ranks of ISIS. “They considered themselves the special forces of the caliphate,” Frenchman Nicolas Hénin, who was held hostage by the four men between June 2013 and April 2014, told Agence France-Presse at the end of 2020. He described “a very high level of arrogance, a level of conviction and disregard for facts, and a detachment from violence that was quite mind-boggling.”
According to the former French journalist-turned-counterterrorism adviser, John Cantlie, war correspondent and “great lover of rock ‘n’ roll,” deserves credit for her nickname, which derives from the “hostage survival reflex.”
Also read our February 5 editorial: The Islamic State Organization, a Still Menacing Hydra