Islamic State Beatles say life sentence inside ‘hell on Earth’ prison would be worse than the death penalty
The ISIS Beatles say they fear a life sentence in a ‘hell on earth’ maximum security prison in the US that for some people would be a ‘fate worse than the death penalty.’
Alexanda Kotey, 36, and El-Shafee el-Sheikh, 32, face rendition to the US, who have agreed that they will not insist on the death penalty for the duo.
Kotey, from Ladbroke Grove, west London, in an interview with the Daily Mirror last year said he and El-Sheikh agreed that being convicted in the States would be a terrible scenario.
He said: ‘I would not want to spend time in a prison in the US. That would not be good. That would be the worst thing that could happen.’
El-Sheikh and Kotey – who were caught in January 2018, are accused of belonging to a brutal four-man cell of executioners in Syria, nicknamed The Beatles – could end up imprisoned at America’s toughest jail.
At the supermax jail in Florence, Colorado, the grounds are patrolled by attack dogs and the towers are manned with sharpshooters.
The proper name for the prison in Florence is the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility.
It is currently home to 490 convicted terrorists, gang leaders and neo-Nazis. Many have been transferred from other prisons after killing inmates or prison staff.
They include Richard Reid, the attempted shoe bomber; Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th 9/11 hijacker; and al-Qaeda terrorists behind the bombing of the World Trade Centre in 1993 and the bombing of the US embassies in Africa.
The prison was built after the murder of two prison officers at a high security prison in Marion, Illinois. The perimeter of the 35-acre site is guarded by 12ft high razor wire fences, laser-beams, pressure pads and attack dogs.
Inmates are kept in cells measuring 7ft by 12ft for 23 hours a day. The bed, desk and stool are immovable and cast from poured concrete. The cells also feature shower cubicals and a toilet.
Wardens have previously told the European Convention on Human Rights that daily exercise is taken in pens measuring 12ft by 20ft, containing pull-up bars and footballs.
Prisoners are allowed to talk to each other between pens, or through the ventilation grills in their cells.
A former British military intelligence officer told the Daily Mirror: ‘Justice in the States for Kotey and el-Sheikh will not be about rehabilitation, but serious punishment and revenge.
‘Theirs will be a life of aching drudgery and boredom. The supermax strips away any comfort and distraction. It will be their worst nightmare.
‘In many ways being locked up for the rest of your life in a featureless and excruciatingly monotonous place is for some people a fate worse than the death penalty.’
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.
Other members of the ISIS 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.
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.
It comes as furious families of the ‘ISIS Beatles’ victims have slammed the UK legal system for ‘letting them down’ as it emerged Britain STILL can’t send crucial evidence to US because it violates their ‘data protection rights’
Bethany Haines, whose father David was beheaded by the ISIS ‘Beatles’ in Syria in 2013, savaged the way the case had been handled in the past two years.
It is feared the two surviving ‘ISIS Beatles’ could never face justice in the US – because the Supreme Court ruled that handing over vital evidence breached their ‘data protection rights’ in legal action brought by one of their mothers.
Prosecutors in the US initially planned to seek Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh’s execution – and the British government want the pair prosecuted in the US, where it is thought there is a more realistic chance of prosecution than at home.
But the Supreme Court this year ruled that Britain could not provide any assistance to American investigators when the threat of death hung over the two – who are accused of being complicit in the murders of 27 people, including the British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning and four Americans.
Mr Haines’ daughter Bethany told MailOnline: ‘We’ve waited over two years and have been let down by the UK legal system.
‘The way this has been handled has been terrible. I’ m glad something is finally happening.
‘Rather than the two countries communicating privately, the US has used the press to communicate, which has made this so much harder than it needed to be.
‘In regards to Bill Barr’s threat to send them to Iraq if the deadline isn’t met, I think this is purely a political move.
‘I urge both governments to remember that this is about real people and our lost loved ones getting justice.’
Last night American Attorney General Bill Barr said capital punishment could be dropped in any cases against Kotey and Elsheikh in an effort to pave the way for the men – currently being held in military detention in Iraq – to finally face justice and stand trial in the US.
He set a two-month deadline for any transfer of evidence to begin or the pair will face justice in Iraq – where ISIS fighters are sentenced to hang after five-minute hearings.
But MailOnline has learned the climbdown has currently changed nothing for the frustrated Home Office and government who are still banned from sending evidence over.
Their hands are tied by the Supreme Court judgement on data protection which said providing evidence for criminal proceedings where they could be executed breached their human rights.
The court had ruled after Elsheikh’s mother Maha Elgizouli challenged the then home secretary Savid Javid’s initial decision to share the information in a case costing thousands.
She believes her son should face justice but that any trial should take place in the UK. She refused to comment on the latest developments last week.
Source: Daily Mail
