Nicholas Henin, a journalist who was previously held by Daesh* has shed light on what the terrorists’ prisoners had to endure in captivity.
Henin, who was abducted in 2013 while working in the Syrian city of Raqqa, shared his revelations while testifying as witness in the trial of El Shafee Elsheikh, a British citizen and alleged member of a Daesh cell known as the “Beatles” because of their accents.
According to the BBC, the journalist revealed that captives were forced to sing a song they called “Hotel Osama”, a parody of “Hotel California” by the Eagles.
The song in question reportedly contained lines such as "you will never leave/if you try, you will die".
Another line, as CBS News notes, said “If you try, you’ll die / Mr. Bigley style,” which seems to be a reference to the death of Kenneth Bigley, a British engineer who was beheaded by al-Qaeda* terrorists in Iraq in 2004.
Elsheikh is suspected of being one of the “Beatles”members who were involved in the kidnapping, torture and beating of over 20 prisoners, and who beheaded four Americans whose deaths the perpetrators videotaped, the New York Post adds.
“They were trying to explain to us that even though we were not carrying weapons, we were still somehow a kind of fighter in the war between the infidel West and Islam,” Henin said during his testimony.
Elsheikh stands trial in the United States, facing charges that include conspiracy to commit murder and kidnapping.
His defence, however, reportedly insists that he was only a “simple” Daesh fighter and not a member of the cell in question.
*Daesh, also known as ISIL and ISIS, is a terrorist group outlawed in Russia and several other countries.
*Al-Qaeda is a terrorist group outlawed in Russia and several other countries.