The report said on Thursday that Kotey pleaded guilty in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to hostage-taking resulting in death, conspiracy to commit murder against US citizens abroad and conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.
The report said Kotey and his associate El Shafee Elsheikh could face a sentence of life in prison as US prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty as a precondition for cooperation with their colleagues in the United Kingdom, who extradited them to the United States.
The indictment alleges that Kotey, Elsheikh, as well as the now-deceased accomplice Mohamed Emwazi and another UK citizen currently incarcerated in Turkey, became Islamic State fighters participated in the abduction of American and other hostages in Syria from 2012 until 2015.
The men allegedly tortured hostages, including US citizens James Wright Foley, Kayla Jean Mueller, Steven Joel Sotloff and Peter Edward Kassig.
The Syrian Democratic Forces captured Kotey and Elsheikh in January of 2018 as they attempted to escape to Turkey. Emwazi was killed in a US airstrike conducted in November of 2015 in Syria.
*Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist organization outlawed in Russia and many other states.