An ISIS terrorist who was part of a beheading gang dubbed The Beatles has had his bid to move to a comfortable British jail refused. El Shafee Elsheikh, known as Jihadi Ringo, is currently serving life in a high-security US prison after he was convicted of hostage-taking and conspiring to murder in 2022.
The 38-year-old had applied to move back to his 'home country' Britain so he could be closer to family and friends, despite his citizenship being revoked in 2018. Elsheikh's gang videotaped the brutal beheadings of captives in territory held by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria in 2014.
This included aid worker David Haines, whose daughter Bethany has said it is a 'huge relief' that Elsheikh will not step foot on British soil. 'It should have been shut down from the outset,' she added in comments made to The Sun. It is understood that Elsheikh's bid to move to the UK was blocked by the US Department of Justice.
Background of El Shafee Elsheikh
Elsheikh was born in Sudan and grew up in London but had his British citizenship revoked in 2018. He was tried by a Federal jury in Virginia in 2022 and was handed eight life sentences. He is currently being housed in a supermax prison in Colorado.
The Victims of The Beatles
Mr Haines, who was from Perth in Scotland, was abducted by ISIS while he was working at a refugee camp in Syria in 2013. He was held hostage by Elsheikh and his gangmates Amon Kotey, Mohammed Emwazi, and Aine Davis. A horrific 2014 video showed Mr Haines kneeling next to knife-wielding terrorist Emwazi, dubbed Jihadi John, before being beheaded.
Other victims of the gang included Americans James Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig, and Kayla Mueller. All the hostages except Ms Mueller were executed in videotaped beheadings that ISIS released online. Ms Mueller was forced into slavery and raped multiple times by Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before she was killed.
Reaction from Families
Mr Haines's daughter Bethany previously said of Elsheikh: 'He left this country to bring terror to the world and inflicted the most appalling treatment on my father and others when he held him captive. He is one of the worst terrorists to come from this country and it's an outrageous insult to our families for him to apply to return to one of our prisons for an easier life.'
The Trial and Aftermath
The IS Beatles were given their name by hostages who noticed their distinctive British accents. The charges against Elsheikh carried a potential death sentence but US prosecutors agreed not to seek his execution in a deal with British officials. Elsheikh's trial, and emotional testimony from the families of his victims, gripped observers on both sides of the Atlantic.
'This prosecution unmasked the vicious and sadistic ISIS Beatles,' said First Assistant US Attorney Raj Parekh, noting that Elsheikh and other members of the gang always wore masks when they appeared in front of their hostages. 'This is one of the most significant international terrorism cases ever brought to trial,' said Commander Richard Smith, head of counterterrorism at London's Metropolitan Police Service.
