British Daesh* "Beatle" El Shafee Elsheikh has been found guilty of conspiring to kidnap and murder several Western hostages in Syria, and now he is facing a life sentence.
He was convicted on four counts related to conspiracy to take hostages that led to death, supporting a terrorist group, along with four charges related to the kidnapping and detention of US citizens that led to their death.
Elsheikh was stripped of his British citizenship after he was accused of being involved in the murder of American reporters James Foley and Steven Sotloff and their aid workers Kayla Mueller and Peter Kassig.
“What I’m realising is really just how sadistic the treatment was, and the level of depravity of the British jihadists,” Diane Foley, the mother of one of the beheaded journalists, told The Telegraph during the trial.
In 2014, Daesh released gruesome footage that showed the beheading of the four, along with the execution of UK citizens David Haines and Alan Henning.
Elsheikh's nickname "Beatle", according to the Associated Press, comes from the Daesh prisoners who used this word to describe their captors' UK accents. "Beatles" are known for their cruelty and love of torture.
Elsheikh was captured by the Kurdish-led Syrian Defence Forces in 2018, and he eventually admitted his role in the hostage-taking scheme to interrogators as well as journalists. He was responsible for collecting e-mail addresses and providing proof of life to the relatives of the hostages during the ransom negotiations.
*Daesh is a terrorist organisation outlawed in Russia and many other countries