ISIS ‘Beatle’ El Shafee Elsheikh is found GUILTY of kidnapping and murdering Western hostages

The mother of beheaded hostage James Foley slammed ISIS ‘Beatle’ El Shafee Elsheikh as a ‘pitiable person’ after she watched a jury declare him guilty of all counts in his federal trial.

‘It’s a big step towards accountability for the torture and murder of the four Americans and three Brits who were abandoned by their government at the time,’ Diane Foley told DailyMail.com after the verdict was announced on Thursday afternoon.

‘Our government has stepped up now so at least we have a bit of justice and we have to thank the prosecutors, Scotland Yard, the FBI and all the courageous witnesses who testified.’

In the wake of her freelance journalist son’s death Foley founded the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation advocating for the return of all US nationals who are held hostage and promotes journalist safety.

Right now, she said, they are working to free more than 60 American citizens held around the world.

She said: ‘We have businessmen, we have a pastor, we have a journalist, former marines…and their return is not being prioritized I fear so that is our work.’

Foley said that her faith in God is what keeps her motivated but that being at the trial has been ‘an ordeal.’  

‘We knew our own story of course but hearing other people’s…it’s just heartbreaking and the inhumanity of human beings to one another. It’s so miserably sad,’ she added.

‘But I think it’s very important to dare to be there, to be present, to not be afraid to stand up in front of him to bear witness.

‘I think it was important for all of us to do that in the name of our brave sons and daughter. That was very important to me to face him. Because now he’s a pitiable person really in a way. He’s lost everything.’

Foley wasn’t the only relative quietly celebrating the unanimous verdict. Steven Sotloff’s father Arthur said he had a bottle of champagne waiting for him.

Kayla Muller’s parents sat and wept as the verdict was read. Peter Kassig’s family smiled through tears

Bethany Haines was also in court. The daughter of British aid worker David Haines had been present through the proceedings during which her father’s captivity and death at the hands of the Beatles, as well as those of fellow Brits, Alan Henning and John Cantlie, has often been referenced. She wiped away tears as she sat and listened.  

Speaking to DailyMail.com Carl Mueller, the father of murdered aid worker Kayla, said: ‘This is justice for our daughter. It’s what our system does and it was an honor to sit here and watch and we have many people to thank – the prosecution and the jury who has had to hear so much testimony.’

Asked if he thought he would see this day Mueller said ‘Yes. We’ve been privy to all this evidence for a long time and yes, I had no doubt our system would do the right thing.’    

Jurors informed the court that they had reached their verdict at 12.15pm Thursday. 

After a trial that lasted more than two weeks and saw the prosecution call 35 witnesses, it took the 12 men and women less than five hours to reach their unanimous verdict on all eight counts.

They returned to the Alexandria, Virginia, courtroom shortly before 1pm.

One by one the verdict for each count was read as Elsheikh, 33, was found guilty of being part of an horrific hostage taking scheme that saw 26 taken and many killed in the most brutal fashion.

Elsheikh is the only ‘Beatle’ to stand trial on American soil for his part in the deaths of US citizens,  journalists Foley and Sotloff and aid workers Mueller and Kassig. 

The terrorist – nicknamed ‘Ringo’ as one of the four British-accented ‘Beatles – stood motionless and without any reaction, apparently impervious to the rising emotion in the room. 

He stood and faced the jury for the first time in proceedings but gave no hint of any impact that their verdict may have had.

After confirming with each juror that this was indeed their true and considered verdict Judge TS Ellis III thanked them for their service and dismissed them.

Before he did so he informed them that Alexanda Kotey – whose name they have heard throughout proceedings as an alleged co-conspirator who was charged on the same counts as Elsheikh – had pleaded guilty and was soon to be sentenced in the same court.

He said: ‘I think it’s reasonable and fair for you to know now that he pleaded guilty on all counts.’

And he cautioned them against speaking to the media about the deliberations process, saying that he believed that if jurors thought that everything that went on in the jurors’ room could be ‘grist for the media mill,’ it would have a ‘chilling effect’ on justice.

Elsheikh is scheduled to appear in court to listen to witness statements on April 29 – the same day Kotey will be sentenced –  after Assistant US Attorney asked the judge to consolidate the sentencings to save family members from having to deliver their victim impact statements more than once.

Elsheikh, however, is set to be sentenced on August 12.  

Fitzpatrick asked that Elsheikh be present to hear the statements read and sentenced that same day. 

The jury began deliberating Wednesday afternoon after hearing closing statements from both prosecution and defense. 

Judge Ellis dismissed five alternate jurors and sent the remaining jurors out to deliberate shortly after 3pm after lengthy jury instructions. 

According to the government, as a member of the ISIS ‘Beatles’ Elsheikh was ‘the lifeblood’ of a ‘horrifying and inhumane hostage-taking scheme’ that saw 26 taken and led to the deaths of the four Americans as well as three British hostages and two Japanese. 

This was the message that First Assistant US Attorney for the Eastern District Raj Parekh delivered to jurors in his closing argument Wednesday morning

Standing to address the court shortly after 9:00am, he spoke for just over an hour, methodically presenting a powerful case and, he told them, a ‘mosaic’ of evidence that when put together creates an undeniable picture of guilt. 

The majority of this is, he argued, ‘straightforward and clean cut’ with Elsheikh condemned in part by his own ‘brazen words.’

Across their case which lasted just over two weeks and saw 35 witnesses called, the government sought to use Elsheikh’s own boastful words against him, playing sections of media interviews given in 2019 in which he admitted to being involved in the American and British hostages’ fates.

According to Parekh, Elsheikh recounted, ‘in granular detail’ information that only a member of the Beatles group would have known.

He reminded the court of the words of the witnesses who described the Beatles’ garb then pointed to a picture of Elsheikh dressed in just such a fashion. Elsheikh and his cohorts were nicknamed after the superstar band because they were all British.

The picture was sent by Elsheikh to his brother in which he described himself as being ‘Rambo style’ and it was the image identified by self-confessed convicted terrorist Omer Kuzu, who told the court that he met Elsheikh when he was using a nom du guerre and fighting for ISIS between 2014 and 2017. 

Parekh played clips of the interviews given by Elsheikh – interviews that the defense had sought to keep out of evidence. 

In opening arguments, the defense that acknowledged Elsheikh was an Islamic State jihadist but insisted he was not one of the ‘Beatles’ and it was a case of ‘mistaken identity.’  

Parekh flipped between Elsheikh’s words and the testimony of the 12 ex-hostages who had testified in court.

The court heard Elsheikh boast: ‘I know how to inflict pain to a certain level…I know how to cause real damage…I’ve hit all the prisoners.’

Then they were reminded of the testimony of witnesses who recalled being waterboarded, beaten with electric cables, kicked, given dead legs, placed in stress positions, enduring mock executions, and being psychologically and physically tortured close to breaking point.

Parekh picked up particular words and phrases that Elsheikh used and pointed to how they mirrored the language of ransom emails sent to hostage families. 

The language was the same, he told the court, because Elsheikh was there – he wrote them. ‘The words roll off the tip of his tongue,’ he said.

Pictures of the hostages who were beheaded were displayed in a collage as Parekh told the court: ‘We have proved beyond any reasonable doubt that El Shafee Elsheikh is one of the Beatles.’ 

And as of the Beatles, the told them, his guilt on all other counts must follow. 

One female juror vigorously nodded her head as Parekh spoke.

He concluded by turning to the victims: ‘They were humanitarians and journalists who came to promote peace and enlightenment in a war-torn country and to alleviate suffering among those most in need.

‘The defendant responded with systematic, premeditated and relentless abuse and torture. 

‘His crimes left a legacy of brutal killings and shattered families, and we respectfully request you return a verdict of guilty for each and every count.’

Attorney Nina Ginsberg took the podium next to deliver a halting closing argument for the defense. 

Where Parekh had insisted again and again that Elsheikh was a Beatle, Ginsberg was left to circle the fact that none of the former hostages had been able to identify him.

They had all testified that he was masked at all times and they were too terrified to dare look for fear of incurring punishment or worse.

The only person who had positively identified him was, she said, Omer Kuzu whom she characterized as a man trying to ‘please’ the government in a bid to see a 20-year sentence in federal prison reduced.

As to those apparently damning confessions made by Elsheikh himself in numerous media interviews, Ginsberg cast them as a desperate man’s bid to save himself from a fate worse than trial in the USA or Britain.

At the time he made those admissions he had, she told the court, been held in a Syrian prison for more than a year and knew that ISIS members were being sent to Iraq for summary trials and swift executions.

If he confessed to involvement in Western hostage taking, he could hope for a fair trial in either Britain or America. 

Ginsberg walked a dangerous line as she appeared to try to elicit sympathy for Elsheikh, whom she did not attempt to exonerate from membership of ISIS.

She pointed to his physically and mentally diminished condition after a lengthy period in custody and drew disgusted intakes of breath from hostage family members who sat in court when she said, ‘[He made his admissions] only after he’d been held for a year and a half which was longer than some of the hostages were held that he had implicated himself in.’

She went on to draw an objection from the prosecution when she sought to present Elsheikh as simply a man who had stood by his friends even when they had committed acts of which he did not necessarily approve and in which he was not necessarily involved.

The ‘friends’ of which she spoke were Mohammed Emwazi ‘Jihadi John’ and Alexe Kotey – two of the so-called Beatles.

Addressing the jury Ginsberg suggested: ‘The government would have you believe that because these men were friends, Mr. Elsheik must have participated in their worst behavior.’

When she said that she was sure that all the jurors must personally know friends or family whom they continue to love despite bad, even criminal behavior, prosecutor Dennis Fitzpatrick stood to object.

Trying again Ginsberg said: ‘It would be reasonable to assume that there are people who have behaved badly, even hurt people but that those individuals [who are friends] do not abandon or stop loving those people. 

‘Mr. Elsheikh’s relationship with Kotey and Emwazi is just that.’

Someone in the gallery muttered: ‘How dare she?’

Stumbling towards a close, Ginsberg admitted that the jury might find guilt on Elsheikh’s role in ISIS. 

Halting for an inordinate period of time, more than one hour in, Judge Ellis was forced to ask: ‘Anything further? There was a very long pause.’

Ginsberg soldiered on, wrapping up her closing argument by asserting that while jurors may disapprove of his involvement in ISIS, the government had not proved that her client was a Beatle nor that he was involved in any of the hostage taking or deaths with which he has been charged.