LET IT BE

ISIS ‘Beatle’ Found Guilty in Murder, Torture of Americans

The charges alleged he was complicit in a conspiracy to kidnap, torture, and kill four Americans, three of whom were beheaded.

On Thursday, a jury in Virginia found El Shafee Elsheikh, a member of the ISIS cell nicknamed “The Beatles,” guilty of all eight charges against him. The charges alleged that he was complicit in a conspiracy to kidnap, torture, and kill four Americans—James Foley, Peter Kassig, Steven Sotloff, and Kayla Mueller—in Syria between 2012 and 2015. Three of the four victims were beheaded in notorious video recordings posted online. The indictment alleged that Elsheikh helped supervise the detention “facilities holding hostages” and engaged “in a prolonged pattern of physical and psychological violence against hostages.” Elsheikh, as well as fellow former British national Alexanda Kotay, were extradited to the U.S. in 2020 to face the charges. England revoked their citizenship for their involvement with ISIS. The pair made up half of the infamous terrorist cell nicknamed after the Fab Four due to their British accents; one fellow Beatle was killed in a drone strike and the other was convicted in a Turkish court in 2017.