London-born jihadi Aine Davis’ long road to the Old Bailey
Suspected ‘Isis Beatle’ Aine Davis became a trans-Atlantic hot potato as lawyers wrestled with the thorny legal issues around how and where he should face justice.
2006: London-born Davis, who has roots in Gambia, meets his wife Amal El-Wahabi at a London mosque and becomes increasingly interested in Islam.
2007: Davis spends time living in Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. According to El-Wahabi, he had a history of drug dealing and went abroad to get away from bad influences.
July 2013: The Muslim convert leaves the UK to pursue a jihadist cause in Syria.
November 26 2013: Davis sends El-Wahabi a picture of himself in Syrian woods posing with a man holding a Kalashnikov rifle.
November 27 2013: Davis sends a group photograph with 13 other people holding guns aloft.
January 2014: El-Wahabi’s friend Nawal Msaad is stopped at Heathrow airport before boarding a flight to Istanbul and found to be carrying 20,000 euro (£15,830) in rolled-up notes.
Summer 2014: El-Wahabi goes on trial at the Old Bailey accused of attempting to send Davis the money to fund terrorism. She is found guilty and Msaad, who was ‘hoodwinked’ by her friend to act as a courier, is acquitted.
November 2014: Mother-of-two El-Wahabi is jailed for 28 months and seven days. Judge Nicholas Hilliard says it is clear that Davis went to Syria to fight under the black flag of Isis and El-Wahabi was ‘infatuated’ with him.
2015: Mohammed Emwazi, aka Jihadi John, the ringleader of the murderous Beatles IS cell, is killed in a US drone strike.
November 12 2015: Davis and others are arrested in Istanbul by the Turkish authorities on suspicion of being members of an armed terrorist group, namely the so-called Islamic State.
Davis is using a forged travel document.
May 9 2017: Davis is convicted in Turkey of membership of a proscribed organisation with firearms and sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison.
2018: Two IS Beatles cell members, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, are captured in Syria. They are later handed eight life sentences in the United States.
2019: Suspected fourth cell member Davis is visited in his Turkish prison by a British intelligence officers who asked him about The Beatles. Afterwards, Davis claims he was mistreated in prison.
May 2021: A draft extradition request for Davis is drawn up but allegedly rejected in favour of deportation by July.
June 2022: British officials learned that prosecutors in New York are seeking to extradite Davis to the US.
June 30 2022: A report is published in British media that Davis is to be deported and citing legal sources advising the British government – ahead of the official announcement in Turkey.
July 2022: Prosecutors in Virginia clarify that they are not looking to put him on trial as a member of The Beatles cell, saying there were only three members.
Then-home secretary Priti Patel allegedly appeals – unsuccessfully – to US authorities for Davis to be prosecuted there in an apparent plan to extradite him on following his deportation from Turkey.
Davis is transferred to an immigration detention centre where he is visited by a consular official who repeatedly attempts to persuade him to return to Britain voluntarily – without success.
August 2022: Davis is deported to Britain and detained by counter-terrorism police on his arrival at Luton airport.
March 2023: Davis is due to stand trial at the Old Bailey accused of arranging terrorist funding from abroad and having a gun with terrorist intent.
His lawyer Mark Summers KC argues he has effectively been convicted and served his time in Turkey for his activities in Syria. He accuses British authorities of having ‘ulterior’ motives and ‘conniving’ to get him back with a view to onward extradition to the US.
October 2023: Davis pleads guilty to having a firearm for terrorist purposes and two terrorism funding charges after unsuccessfully applying to the Court of Appeal.
November 2023: He is jailed for eight years.
Source » dailymail.co.uk
