Isis Two members of the "Beatles" terrorist organization while opposing the March of the British Defense League (EDL) He was identified after bragging about being arrested, police said earlier.
Alexander Koti and El Shafi El Sheikh said that between 2012 and 2015 hehad at least 27 people in Syria. was involved in the abduction of Journalist later executed for ISIS propaganda video.
In 2011, the year before they traveled to join his ISIS, the two were stabbed during clashes with the far-right's EDL as members of an Islamist extremist group. was arrested as
Kotey was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to eight charges, including conspiracy to take hostages to death and conspiracy to murder a U.S. citizen, while Elsheikh Convicted after denying crime and will. He will be executed on Friday.
In November 2012, following the kidnappings of British photographer John Country and American journalist James Foley, the Metropolitan Police's Counterterrorism Command launched an investigation into then-unidentified extremists. started.
Lieutenant Colonel Richard Smith said at a press conference that the militants involved hid their faces and chose not to reveal their names to the hostages, so investigators were left with "breadcrumbs" that could lead to their identities.
The first clue is the British accent that led to the POWs being called "Beatles" and the pool of foreign fighters who crossed from Britain to Syria.
"Released hostages and intelligence reports indicate that they were probably British from London," Smith said.
"One piece of information, seemingly completely unobtrusive to the hostages, turned out to be very important to us. It was a memory of a conversation in which one of the prisoners stated that he had been arrested. EDL march in London while participating in anti-demonstrations.
"Based on snippets of that conversation, the investigative team traced back to London on September 11, 2011." We were able to identify a particular EDL march.”
The demonstration, marking the 10th anniversary of 9/11, saw members of the Muslim opposition to the Crusades. This is an offshoot of Anjem Chowdhury's Al He Muhajiroun organization which was banned as a terrorist group a few months later. Burning the American flag and yelling "USA Terrorist" outside the US Embassy.
After fending off police attempts to separate the opposing groups, he engaged EDL members in combat in the surrounding area.
El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey were captured in 2018
(Syrian Democratic Forces/AFP/Getty)
"A stabbing occurred in connection with the march and a group of individuals were arrested on suspicion of their involvement," Smith said.
``From our records, we know that two of them were Koti and Elsheikh. It was very helpful to focus on the men who were described to us.”
Police officers filmed the two men at the demonstration and fingerprinted them after their arrest. , conducted a hearing.
Evidence indicates that they were "comrades for a while" before traveling to Syria, and Mohammed, the ISIS executioner who came to be known as Jihadi John. *Also associated with Emwazi.
His identity was revealed in 2012 when footage of police interviews in connection with a spate of bicycle thefts in London appeared in footage of the execution of Mr. Foley and other victims.
An audio message Elsheikh sent to his brother while in Syria also matched another police interview tape from 2009. did.
The Barack Obama administration has launched at least one of her operations to rescue American hostages held by ISIS. However, it ultimately failed.
Some European hostages were released after governments paid ransoms, but the US and UK governments have long-standing policies not to pay money to terrorist groups.
In January 2018, Khoti and Elsheikh were captured by the Syrian Democratic Forces after the fall of the Isis "caliphate", while Emwazi was killed in a targeted US drone strike in 2015.
Indicted in the US after a lengthy legal dispute between the US and British governments after the UK said it could not prosecute them.
Elsheikh of The legal challenge filed by the mother against the UK's decision to produce evidence without assurance that the death penalty would not apply was that the Crown Prosecutor's Office found "insufficient evidence". clarified.
The case concluded with the Supreme Court ruling that her decision was lawful in 2020, but Smith said police have since filed her case against Kotay and El Sheikh. Authorization was obtained on 139 counts of charges. Including murder conspiracies and hostages.
He was not likely to be prosecuted in the UK when the UK government decided to turn evidence to the US in June 2018, and the situation is likely to change as the investigation progresses from 2020 onwards. claimed to have done so. Court precedent.
"At that point no decision had been made as to where they would be tried and it was possible they could return to the UK," said a senior counter-terrorism officer. 76}
Mr Smith said he was unable to determine their intentions in 2012, noting that Coty and El-Sheikh "got through the net" when they traveled to join ISIS in Syria. Denied.
"There weren't enough indications that anyone could have realistically acted to intervene in the early stages," he said.