United States: one of the "Beatles" of the IS found guilty of kidnapping and assassination
El Shafee el-Sheikh, one of the four members of the group of British jihadists "Beatles" of the IS in Kobané, March 30, 2018. © Hussein Malla/AP
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A member of the Islamic State terrorist organization convicted of participating in the kidnapping and murder of 4 American citizens.
El Shafee el-Sheikh was accused of being a member of a particularly cruel group nicknamed the “Beatles” by their victims.
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With our correspondent in Washington,
Guillaume Naudin
As
during the trial
, El Shafee el-Sheikh remained unresponsive and silent when the jury found him guilty.
On the contrary of the families of the victims, particularly moved.
Throughout the two-week hearings, witnesses, including several former hostages, came to recount their abduction, their conditions of detention,
ill-treatment and torture
.
Before discovering, for those who were lucky enough to survive and be freed for ransom, the particularly gruesome execution videos of those who remained: journalists James Foley and Peter Sotloff and aid workers Peter Kassig and Kayla , Muller.
No witness could formally identify the accused, as the members of the sinister group were still masked.
But it only took 12 hours for jurors to find him guilty on 8 counts.
It must be said that El Shafee el-Sheikh had spoken widely before in interviews with journalists.
The sentence will be pronounced later.
In order to be able to judge him in the United States, American justice had undertaken not to pronounce the death penalty.
He therefore faces life imprisonment.
A probably worse sentence, according to Kayla Mueller's father.
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To read also: One of the "Beatles" of the Islamic State pleads guilty in front of American justice
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Terrorism
United States
Justice
IS