ISIS Beatles CAN face trial in America: Terror suspect's mother loses High Court bid to stop pair's prosecution in US - meaning they face life in 'hell on earth' supermax prison if convicted

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A last gasp challenge which could have stopped the British ISIS Beatles facing justice in America has been thrown out of the High Court this morning.

Maha Elgizouli, whose son El Shafee Elsheikh is in US custody with his co-accused Alexanda Kotey, brought a judicial review request earlier this month over Priti Patel's decision to provide material on the pair to the American government under a "mutual legal assistance (MLA)" request.

It saw the court initially making an order stopping the Secretary of State from providing any further information to the United States Government until it had reached a decision.

But today the Queen's Bench Division threw out the claim, branding it 'not properly arguable' and shutting down the route to frustrate any US prosecution.

This latest wrangle came after the American authorities pledged the pair would not face the death penalty if convicted in the country.

The prospect of them being executed had caused an even earlier stop on the evidence being supplied to the States after Ms Elgizouli - who has had at least £23,000 of legal aid - took action.

A judgement released today confirmed: 'We have concluded that this application is not properly arguable, and we refuse permission to apply for judicial review.

'On the handing down of this judgment, the Order referred to, prohibiting the Secretary of State from providing any further material to the United States Government, has now ceased to have effect.'

Elsheikh and Kotey are accused of belonging to a cell of executioners in Syria - nicknamed The Beatles because of their British accents - responsible for killing a number of Western captives.

The new court move means they face a life sentence at the notorious 'supermax', formally known as the US Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado. 

El-Shafee El-Sheikh (left), 32, and Alexanda Kotey (right), 36, were members of the 'Beatles' terror cell which was behind the beheading of two British aid workers and two US journalists

Maha Elgizouli, whose son El Shafee Elsheikh, refused to comment on the legal proceedings

Maha Elgizouli with her son El Shafee Elsheikh, when he was a younger in childhood snap

At the hearing in London on September 11, Ms Elgizouli's lawyers argued Ms Patel's decision was unlawful as it is incompatible with the Data Protection Act, and are asking the court to order that no material should be provided to the US.

In written submissions to the court, Richard Hermer QC said the international transfer of the data is "not strictly necessary" in circumstances where the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is due to make a decision "imminently" about whether the pair should be prosecuted in the UK.

He argued Ms Patel did not make sufficient inquiries as to whether a prosecution would be undertaken in the UK, and she "failed to address adequately or at all" what the appropriate jurisdiction for a prosecution would be when reaching her decision.

The barrister added: "It is in any event irrational to decide to transfer data, and provide co-operation permitting the use of that data in US proceedings, in circumstances where there is a realistic prospect that the (DPP) may bring a prosecution... in this jurisdiction."

Mr Hermer said the hearing is urgent as the US Government has indicated it will transfer the pair to Iraq for trial, where if found guilty they will be executed, if it does not receive all the evidence the UK has on them by October 15.

He said the DPP had indicated in late August that he would reach his decision on whether they should face trial in the UK in "three to four weeks".

Lawyers for Maha Elgizouli claimed Home Secretary Priti Patel has not considered UK charges

Other members of the 'Beatles' cell are said to include Mohammed Emwazi, the group's ringleader, also known as Jihadi John, who was killed in a US air strike in 2015, while Aine Davis is in jail in Turkey for terror offences, while Aine Davis is in jail in Turkey for terror offences

Ms Elgizouli's case is opposed by the Home Secretary, and lawyers representing her say she acted "rationally and lawfully" when reaching her decision.

Sir James Eadie QC, representing Ms Patel, said the DPP has now concluded the review and determined that there is sufficient evidence to prosecute Elsheikh for a number of "terrorism-related offences".

He told the court that those offences either require consent of the Attorney General, Suella Braverman, or her permission for the DPP to consent to a prosecution.

Mr Hermer said there was a charging decision by the DPP in 2016, made with the consent of the Attorney General, that there was sufficient evidence to charge Kotey - whose whereabouts were then unknown - with five offences of murder and eight of hostage taking.

He told the court the US authorities have "always made clear their preference" for both men to be tried in the UK, and said Ms Patel's decision to share evidence was "premature" while there was still uncertainty about where they should face prosecution.

Dame Victoria Sharp and Mr Justice Garnham will give their ruling at 10.30am on Tuesday.

Elsheikh and Kotey were captured in January 2018, sparking an international row over whether they should be returned to the UK for trial or face justice in another jurisdiction.

They were transferred to the custody of the US military in Iraq in October 2019 and remain in American custody.

American officials revealed last month, in a letter to Ms Patel from US Attorney General William Barr, that they will not insist on the death penalty for the pair following any prosecution.

Ms Elgizouli previously brought a challenge to former home secretary Sajid Javid's decision to share evidence with US authorities without seeking assurances the men would not be executed if convicted in the US.

Her case was dismissed by the High Court in January 2019 but that decision was overturned in March this year by a panel of seven Supreme Court justices, who unanimously allowed her appeal - ruling the decision to share evidence with the US was unlawful under the Data Protection Act.

In June 2018, Mr Javid authorised the sharing of 600 witness statements gathered by the Metropolitan Police under a "mutual legal assistance" agreement in a letter to then US attorney general Jeff Sessions.

Mr Javid faced intense criticism after the letter to Mr Sessions was leaked, with MPs accusing him of breaching the UK's long-standing opposition to the death penalty.

Then prime minister Theresa May supported Mr Javid's original decision, which was also backed by current Prime Minister Boris Johnson when he was foreign secretary.

Kotey and Elsheikh, who were raised in the UK but have been stripped of their British citizenship, were captured by the Syrian Democratic Forces in January 2018.

They are said to have been members of the cell that also included Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John, who was killed in a US air strike in 2015, and Aine Davis, who has been jailed in Turkey.

Emwazi appeared in a number of videos in which hostages, including British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning and US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, were killed.

A statement on behalf of the families of John Cantlie, Alan Henning, David Haines on the High Court decision said they were pleased with the news.

It said: 'We - the families of Alan Henning, David Haines and John Cantlie - welcome the news that finally the evidence relating to Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh can be transferred to the US Government.

'This is a huge result for us. It has been nearly three years since these men were first detained in Syria, during which time we have silently watched countless media reporting on the two, while the cogs of the legal system ground slowly on. We have only ever wanted to see these two men being held accountable and brought to justice through a fair trial for their alleged actions.

'Alan Henning, David Haines and John Cantlie were each in Syria as aid workers and journalists. They were kidnapped, starved, tortured and brutalised whilst held captive for months on end. Alan and David were then murdered, their deaths posted publicly for propaganda. John Cantlie is still missing, eight years on from when he and Jim Foley were kidnapped in November 2012.' 

The Western hostages captured, tortured and killed by the beheading gang

American journalist who kept up fellow prisoners' morale 

James Foley, from Illinois, USA, was a journalist who first went missing in November 2012

James Foley, from Illinois, in the US, was a journalist who first went missing in November 2012.

On his way to an internet cafe,  while reporting for the GlobalPost, he had been taken hostage at gunpoint by militants from the group Jabhat al Nusra in Taftanaz, northern Syria.

Jabhat al Nusra subsequently joined forces with ISIS - which did not exist in anything like its current form when Mr Foley was taken.

Mr Foley joined other prisoners, who were European and British, in the ISIS prison and despite attempts to rescue him, he was eventually murdered by his captors.

His fellow prisoners spoke kindly of Foley, who called people 'Bro' and never argued over shortages of food, despite meagre rations equating to cup of food-a-day, often sharing his portion and his blanket. 

Mr Foley often made efforts to maintain prisoners' morale, persuading them to play games and to give talks on their favourite subjects.

He even organised a 'Secret Santa' during Christmas 2013, encouraging hostages to make gifts out of whatever they could find. 

ISIS posted his execution video, titled 'A Message to America' to social media as proof of his death.

In scripted remarks before his killing, kneeling in an orange jump suit, he said: 'I wish I could have the hope of freedom and seeing my family once again. 

'But that ship has sailed. I guess all in all I wish I wasn't American.' 

 

 

'The guy lit up a room': US freelance journalist who was an avid rugby player

Steven Sotloff, 31, from Miami, who freelanced for Time and Foreign Policy magazines, vanished in Syria in 2013

US journalist Steven Sotloff, 31, vanished in Syria in August 2013.

Mr Sotloff was not seen again until he appeared in a video released online by ISIS on August 2014, that showed James Foley's beheading.

In a second clip, published weeks later, entitled 'A Second Message to America,' Mr Sotloff appeared in a orange jumpsuit before he is beheaded by an Islamic State fighter.

The grandson of Holocaust survivors, Mr Sotloff grew up Miami, before attending the Kimball Union Academy boarding school in New Hampshire before studying at the University of Central Florida. 

While at Kimball, Mr Sotloff was an avid rugby player and on moving to UFC began working for the student newspaper there, the Central Florida Future.

He left this paper in 2005 and began to pursue his dreams of journalism full time.

'The guy lit up a room. He was always such a loyal, caring and good friend to us,' former roommate Josh Polsky told the New York Times. 

'If you needed to rely on anybody for anything he would drop everything on a dime for you or for anyone else.'

Sotloff travelled to the Middle East as a freelance journalist and wrote reports from Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Turkey and Syria.

He often had pieces in Time and Foreign Policy magazines.

'A million people could have told him what he was doing was foolish, as it seemed to us outsiders looking in, but to him it was what he loved to do and you weren't going to stop him,' his friend, Emerson Lotzia, said.

'Steve said it was scary over there. It was dangerous. It wasn't safe to be over there. He knew it. He kept going back.' 

 

British taxi driver who volunteered as an aid worker

Alan Henning, a father-of-two, was kidnapped on Boxing Day 2013 as he delivered aid to Syrian refugees

Alan Henning, a father-of-two, was kidnapped on Boxing Day 2013 as he delivered aid to Syrian refugees.

The taxi-driver, from Manchester, was kept hostage until he was beheaded by Jihadi John on video in October 2014.   

Before he was killed, Mr Henning was forced to tell the camera that he was being murdered in retaliation for parliament's decision to attack ISIS.  

Originally from Salford, he had seen the suffering first hand during a life-changing visit to a refugee camp, which inspired him to help the innocents whose lives were being wrecked by the conflict.

After volunteering with a Muslim charity, the 47-year-old agreed to drive 3,000 miles in a convoy of old ambulances to help the aid effort and take much-needed medical supplies to hospitals in the northern Syrian province of Idlib.

Known as 'Gadget' to friends and family for his fondness for technology, Mr Henning had been washing cars in the UK to raise money for donations before setting off on his fourth visit to the country.

He travelled with eight others from charity Al-Fathiha Global, who intended to deliver vital equipment, including NHS ambulances packed with baby milk, nappies, food and defibrillators, but was kidnapped by ISIS extremists on Boxing Day, shortly after making the 4,000-mile journey to the town of Al-Dana.

A fan of Phil Collins, which he enjoyed playing as he drove, Mr Henning was incredibly popular and during one trip insisted on sleeping inside his ambulance instead of a hotel to save money so it could be donated to the refugees instead.

Kasim Jameel, leader of the convoy on which Mr Henning was travelling when he was kidnapped, described his friend as a 'big softie.'

Dr Shameela Islam-Zulfiqar, who was also in the convoy, said Mr Henning was 'remarkable.'

'He's such a compassionate and selfless human being,' she said. 'It just simply wasn't enough for Alan to sit back and just donate or raise awareness.

He had to get up and do something about what he'd seen Every time the convoys went he had a yearning to go. That really motivated him, to see, practically, first-hand the difference he was making.' 

 

Scottish father-of-two who spent his career as an aid worker

David Haines, who was beheaded a week after Steven Sotloff, was the first British victim of Jihadi John

David Haines, who was beheaded a week after Steven Sotloff, was the first British victim of Jihadi John. 

The father-of-two, from Holderness, East Yorkshire, was taken hostage while working for relief agency ACTED in Syria in March this year.

He was captured near the Atmeh refugee camp, just inside the Syrian border with Turkey. 

Mr Haines spent his career as an aid worker helping to protect innocent civilians in developing nations.

For more than two decades, he travelled with aid agencies through Syria, Libya, the former Yugoslavia and South Sudan.

He dedicated his life to promoting peace in places of violent conflict and oversaw projects to save civilians from land mines.

The 44-year-old was described as a hero by his family, who were inspired by him to travel the world on further aid missions.

He had a teenage daughter in Scotland from a previous marriage with his first wife, and a four-year-old daughter, Athea, in Croatia from his second wife.

Mr Haines was brought up in Perth, Scotland, and studied at Perth Academy before joining the military aged 17.

According to his online CV he spent 11 years in the military, holding 'various positions covering security and threat assessments in a number of different countries' between 1988 and 1999.

It did not specify with which armed forces he served, although his ISIS execution video claimed he had been in the Royal Air Force. 

His brother Mike later confirmed this, saying he was an engineer. 

 

26-year-old who was helping refugees while living in Beirut 

Peter Kassig, a 26-year-old from Indiana, was beheaded by ISIS executioner Jihadi John in November 2014

Peter Kassig, a 26-year-old from Indiana, started a non-profit organisation called Special Emergency Response and Assistance (SERA).

The Iraq war veteran, who was living in Beirut to provide relief for refugees of the Syrian crisis, was beheaded by ISIS executioner Jihadi John, in November 2014.

Writing on his profile page on fundraising website FundRazr, Mr Kassig said he had previously worked as a medic in a hospital in Tripoli, Lebanon.

He said: 'When I first started this cause to help those in need, I was on my own but I saw first-hand the shortages in available resources and supplies for people who were suffering in Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey as a result of the violence.

'The amount of feedback and support from people all around the world motivated me to get organised and develop a platform through which people could send donations to support the continuation of my work.'

Kassig joined the U.S. Army Rangers in 2006 and was deployed to Iraq in 2007.

He was honourably discharged for medical reasons after a brief tour and returned to the United States to study political science.

However, in 2010, he decided to take time off from his studies and began his certification as an emergency medical technician.

He then decided to travel to Beirut to try and help those in need as a result of the Syria crisis.

It was after a short time in the country that he started up his own aid group, SERA.

Few details are publicly known about how Kassig was taken captive. 

 

The 26-year-old humanitarian who said there was always light in darkness

Kayla Mueller, 26, was kept as a sex slave by ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi

American Kayla Mueller was a humanitarian aid worker who was kidnapped and taken hostage in August 2013 after leaving a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Aleppo, Syria.

She was kept as a sex slave by ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, who raped her repeatedly during her captivity.

The fanatics reportedly demanded 5 million euros from Mueller's family, telling them that that they would send a picture of her body if they were not given money.

Kotey has admitted having contact with her, adding: ‘I took an email from her myself. She was in a room by herself that no one would go in.'

Her death was reported in February 2015 and her name was used as the codeword for the daring US raid that killed her once captor.

Kayla’s body has never been found and her parents live in hope her remains will be recovered.

Mother Martha said: I want people to see the light in Kayla in such utter darkness, how she just said there is always light.

"And I also want people to see that she even told people that as far as where she was, maybe she was supposed to be there, this is where she was supposed to be all along. She always wanted to help.’

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The prison cell that's a fate worse than death: If convicted in the U.S., the jihadi 'Beatles' will be spared execution. But that would be a release compared with the mental torture of its most secure jail, writes TOM LEONARD 

After just two years in Colorado's dreaded Supermax Prison, hate preacher Abu Hamza was frantically pounding on his cell door to get out, his lawyers decrying its 'inhuman and degrading conditions' and insisting he'd return to a British jail 'in a second' if he could.

Perhaps his successor in British Islamist extremism, Isis fanatic Alexanda Kotey, had Hamza's bleak fate in mind — even his famous hooks were removed from the stumps of his arms — when he recently said the 'worst thing that could happen' would be to be locked up in a U.S. jail.

Kotey and fellow British jihadi El Shafee Elsheikh face extradition to America after officials there promised they would not be put to death if convicted of barbaric crimes as members of the notorious 'Beatles' terror cell which was behind the beheading of two British aid workers and two U.S. journalists.

Grim: A Supermax cell. Since it opened in 1994 at a cost of $60 million, America's only Supermax prison, whose official name is ADX (or Administrative Maximum Facility) Florence, has housed the country's most notorious and violent criminals

Given that Hamza's offences pale beside those of 'Ringo' and 'George', as the pair were dubbed by prisoners, they will almost certainly join him at Supermax.

It's a fate that may strike many as worse than the death penalty as they are locked up to rot. Since it opened in 1994 at a cost of $60 million, America's only Supermax prison, whose official name is ADX (or Administrative Maximum Facility) Florence, has housed the country's most notorious and violent criminals.

Prisoners go to the 'Alcatraz of the Rockies' not in any hope of rehabilitation but purely for the purposes of punishment and assured incarceration.

It is designed for male inmates (there are no women) deemed the most dangerous and so contemptuous of human life that they require the tightest control. In many cases, their escape is considered to pose a serious threat to national security.

Nobody has ever escaped from Supermax and, more to the point, few are ever heard from again once they pass through its encircling fortress of reinforced concrete walls, its fields of razor wire and gun towers. Inside, inmates begin a new life inside a tiny concrete cell with absolutely minimal human contact.

Supermax has been variously described as 'the prison of prisons', 'life after death', and a 'high-tech version of Hell, designed to shut down all sensory perception'.

'It's only my personal opinion, but I'll tell you, I don't know if anyone deserves to be in a place like this,' said Robert Hood, warden at ADX Florence from 2002 to 2005. 'There's no other way to say it — it's worse than death.'

If the cocky pair are expecting to enjoy their notoriety, they had better think again. Far more notorious prisoners are currently there. As well as Hamza, they include Mexican drug cartel king Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, 'Unabomber' Ted Kaczynski and former Soviet double agent Robert Hanssen.

The place heaves with Muslim extremists — including Richard Reid, the British Al Qaeda 'Shoe Bomber'; Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Zacarias Moussaoui, key planner of the September 11 terror attacks.

Not that its 410 inmates — delivered to the prison in buses, armoured cars and occasionally Black Hawk helicopters — have any opportunity to fraternise.

The 37-acre facility sits 115 miles south of Denver with spectacular views of the Rockies — which the inmates cannot see. The outer perimeter is guarded by a dozen huge gun towers, 12 ft high razor-wire fences, hidden pressure pads and patrols by armed guards.

A 2014 report by Amnesty International entitled Entombed: Isolation In The U.S. Federal Prison System claimed Supermax breached international law.

Specially designed 'control units' function as prisons within prisons. Inmates are confined in single-person, 7 ft-by-12 ft cells for 23 hours a day. The hour in which they are allowed out, always in shackles, can be spent exercising or, if they've earned the privilege, making a heavily monitored phone call.

There's no exercise yard at Supermax. Inmates exercise as they sleep and eat — alone. They are led to an outdoor cage slightly larger than the prison cells but sunk into a concrete pit resembling an empty swimming pool. It is designed to stop them working out their location and forming an escape plan.

The pit includes an exercise bar and enough space to walk ten steps in a straight line or 31 in a circle. When they're going to and from their cells, prisoners are not only accompanied by guards but monitored by hundreds of cameras and motion sensors. The prison's 1,400 steel doors open remotely and can be closed simultaneously if a panic button is pressed.

Inmates can find little comfort in their cell. The bed is a poured concrete slab covered with a thin mattress and blankets. Furniture consists of an immovable concrete desk and stool. There is also a combined lavatory, sink and drinking fountain.

Each cell has a 4in-wide slit-like window angled so as neither to provide a view of the sky nor of other cells. An inmate cannot tell where he is in the prison by peering through it but merely whether it's night or day.

Each cell has a 4in-wide slit-like window angled so as neither to provide a view of the sky nor of other cells. An inmate cannot tell where he is in the prison by peering through it but merely whether it's night or day.

An en-suite shower is on a timer, the electric light can only be switched off by guards, and a black- and-white TV — showing carefully-curated educational and religious programmes — can be watched if the inmate behaves well.

Smooth concrete walls are sound-proofed to ensure inmates cannot shout or tap messages to each other. Visitors have described the silence that pervades the place as chilling and eerie.

Prisoners eat in their cells, with meals slid through holes in the doors. The food is bland even by prison standards as nothing on the menu can allow inmates to harm themselves or create unhygienic conditions in their cell.

If they do get ill, prisoners generally have to talk to a doctor by video — another effort to minimise potentially risky contact.

The Isis Beatles — reportedly responsible not just for beheadings, but also crucifixions and torture using electric shocks and waterboarding — can expect to end up in the Special H-Security Unit, also called the H-Hut.

It is reserved for prisoners whose communications with the outside world demand the strictest controls. Some of those incarcerated here don't even have contact with guards when they exercise. Their cell doors open automatically to a tunnel.

The only visitors H-Hut prisoners are allowed are lawyers and immediate family, speaking over telephones through reinforced glass windows. All conversations are monitored except official legal ones with their lawyers.

And if there's one thing on which former prison staff and inmates will generally agree, it is that Supermax makes capital punishment look the humane option. Critics have long argued its harsh regime of extreme isolation and sensory deprivation has a ruinous effect on inmates' mental health, noting that at least eight of them have committed suicide there despite the stringent precautions.

Many more, including Richard Reid, have staged hunger strikes.

'It's only my personal opinion, but I'll tell you, I don't know if anyone deserves to be in a place like this,' said Robert Hood, warden at ADX Florence from 2002 to 2005. 'There's no other way to say it — it's worse than death.'

Inmate Eric Rudolph, who bombed an Atlanta car park while the city was hosting the summer Olympics in 1996, once claimed that the isolation was driving him insane. 'It is a closed-off world designed to isolate inmates from social and environmental stimuli, with the ultimate purpose of causing mental illness and chronic physical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and arthritis,' he said.

'Part of the plan here is sensory deprivation,' said Charles Harrelson, the father of Hollywood star Woody Harrelson who was also a professional killer and Supermax inmate. 'I'm unable to exercise any control over anything outside this cage. I simply do my best with what I have.'

He eventually gave up even taking his hour of exercise, staying in his room and reading books or listening to the radio.

A 2014 report by Amnesty International entitled Entombed: Isolation In The U.S. Federal Prison System claimed Supermax breached international law.

Two years earlier, a class action lawsuit on behalf of mentally-ill prisoners claimed many of them 'interminably wail, scream and bang on the walls of their cells' or mutilate their bodies with whatever objects they can find.

The prison's defenders have pointed out that, at least, Supermax hasn't suffered the savage violence that has ripped through other U.S. prisons and, given the distancing of prisoners, has so far come through the coronavirus pandemic unscathed.

'George' and 'Ringo' were members of a gang who, even by the crazed standards of Isis, were vicious jailers to their terrorised Western captives. Spending the rest of their days in Supermax may be brutal but it's certainly fitting.