One member of the "Beatles" group associated with ISIS pleaded guilty in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, on Thursday to charges of conspiring to kidnap and murder Western hostages, including four Americans. Alexander Cote, a 37-year-old former British citizen, along with another member of the same jihadist kidnapping cell, El Shafee Elsheikh, 33, were transferred from Iraq to the United States in October to face trial for their involvement in the killings of four American hostages: journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and aid workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller.
These jihadists were captured in January 2018 by Kurdish forces in northern Syria and handed over to the U.S. military in Iraq. Cote answered "yes" to Judge T.S. Ellis when asked, "Do you plead guilty, freely and voluntarily, because you are in fact guilty of these charges?” By pleading guilty, Cote waives his right to a trial and faces multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole, and he is also required to provide all information he possesses regarding the actions he took in Syria. The defendant, born in London, spoke in English during the proceedings, which were attended by the families of the four American victims.
The United Kingdom has refused to prosecute these jihadists on its soil and stripped them of their British citizenship, but it also declined to allow them to be tried in the United States until Washington assured them that the U.S. legal system would not seek the death penalty. On October 9, the defendants appeared before a judge via video from their prison, and they claimed their innocence at that time.
Cote's change in defense strategy from pleading not guilty to admitting guilt likely indicates that he has made a deal with prosecutors in exchange for his cooperation. The Beatles jihadist cell consisted of four Britons, named by their hostages due to the accent of their captors. These four individuals are suspected of having kidnapped American, European, and Japanese hostages in Syria between 2012 and 2015, torturing and killing them, particularly through beheading. The cell recorded the executions of its hostages in videos released by ISIS for propaganda purposes.
The cell was led by Mohammed Emwazi, known as "Jihadi John," who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Syria in November 2015. The last member of this quartet, Aine Davis, is imprisoned in Turkey on terrorism charges. According to the indictment, Cote and Elsheikh oversaw the detention locations of the hostages, coordinated negotiations for ransom payments via email, and engaged in "repeated acts of physical and psychological violence against the hostages." The federal court in Alexandria, located in Virginia near Washington, D.C., announced in a notice published late Tuesday that it would hold a hearing on Thursday afternoon regarding the change in Cote's defense strategy.
