Don't turn the ISIS Beatles into martyrs, says victim's mother

Two suspected members of the so-called ISIS “Beatles” terror gang should not be turned into “martyrs” by being given the death penalty, one of the victims’ mother said today.

Diane Foley, whose photographer son James, 40, was the first western hostage to be featured in an Islamic State beheading video in 2014, wants Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh to be tried in an “open and transparent way”.

She believes executing them would be a “much easier way out” for them and would prefer them to be locked up until they die.

Mr Foley spoke out after it emerged that Home Secretary Sajid Javid had told Washington that Britain would not demand an assurance that the two men would not be given the death penalty if they are sent to face trial in the US.

The Cabinet minister wrote to the US Attorney General Jeff Sessions in June as Britain sought to persuade America to try Kotey and Elsheikh there as it is believed the chances of a successful prosecution are higher under its legal system.

However, Mr Javid’s stance sparked accusations that he was seeking to amend Britain’s long-standing policy of only being willing to pass on intelligence for prosecutions abroad provided there is no death penalty.

However, the two men are understood to no longer be British citizens and are not being extradited from the UK as they are currently believed to be in jail in a Kurdish-held area of northern Syria.

In his letter, Mr Sajid wrote: “All assistance and material will be provided on the condition that it may only be used for the purpose sought in that request, namely a federal criminal investigation or prosecution.

“Furthermore, I am of the view that there are strong reasons for not requiring a death penalty assurance in this specific case, so no such assurances will be sought.”

But he added: “As you are aware, it is the long-held position of the UK to seek death penalty assurances, and our decision in this case does not reflect a change in our policy on assistance in US death penalty cases generally, nor the UK Government’s stance on the global abolition of the death penalty.”

However, Mrs Foley said she was opposed to the death penalty.

“That would just make them martyrs in their twisted ideology,” she told BBC radio.

“I would like them held accountable by being sent to prison for the rest of their lives. That’s easy for them in a way that allows them to take a much easier way out.”

Former reviewer of terrorism legislation Lord Carlile said Mr Javid’s letter was “extraordinary”.

“It is a dramatic change of policy by a minister, secretly, without any discussion in Parliament,” he said.

“Britain has always said that it will pass information and intelligence, in appropriate cases, provided there is no death penalty. That is a decades-old policy and it is not for the Home Secretary to change that policy.”

The UK was also reported to be ready not to raise objections to the two men, who were captured in January, being held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

Along with Mohammed Emwazi, the killer nicknamed “Jihadi John”, and Aine Davis, they are thought to have been part of an IS group named after the Beatles because of their English accents.

Emwazi, who was killed in a US air strike in 2015, appeared in a number of videos in which captives, including British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning and US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, were killed.

A Home Office spokesman said: “We continue to engage with the US Government on this issue, as we do on a range of national security issues and in the context of our joint determination to tackle international terrorism and combat violent extremism.

“The UK Government’s position on Guantanamo Bay is that the detention facility should close.”

Mr Javid said Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command had been “engaged extensively” on the case with the FBI, with the investigation running for more than four years “during which time they have engaged with 14 other countries and compiled over 600 witness statements”.

Davis was convicted of being a member of a terrorist organisation and jailed for seven-and-a-half years at a court in Silivri, Turkey, in May 2017.