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El
Shafee Elsheikh, 33, a former British citizen, was found guilty
of the charges by a federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia in
April after a six-week trial and hours of deliberations.
In convicting Elsheikh, the jury concluded that he was part of
an Islamic State cell, nicknamed "The Beatles" for their British
accents, that had beheaded American hostages in Iraq and Syria.
Elsheikh, who was born in Sudan and raised in London, was
accused of conspiring to kill four American hostages: James
Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller. Foley and
Sotloff, both journalists, and Kassig, an aid worker, were
killed in videotaped beheadings. Mueller was raped repeatedly by
the group’s leader at the time, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, before her
death in Syria, U.S. officials have said.
The deaths of Foley, Sotloff and Kassig were confirmed in 2014,
while Mueller's death was confirmed in early 2015.
The charges against Elsheikh, whose British citizenship was
withdrawn in 2018, carried a potential death sentence, but U.S.
prosecutors have previously advised British officials that they
will not seek the death penalty.
Another member of the cell, Alexanda Kotey, was handed a
lifetime prison sentence by a U.S. judge earlier this year.
Kotey was held in Iraq by the U.S. military before being flown
to the United States to face trial. He pleaded guilty last
September to the murders of Foley, Sotloff, Mueller and Kassig.
A third member of the group, Mohammed Emwazi, died in a
U.S.-British missile strike in Syria in 2015.
Some former hostages, released by the cell after protracted
negotiations, testified during trials about the torture they
endured. Family members of the deceased victims also testified.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh; editing by Scott Malone and
Bernadette Baum)
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