Notorious ISIS ‘Beatle’ AVOIDS spending life sentence in ‘concrete box’ at Colorado supermax prison

A man known as the ‘Ringo’ of the so-called ‘ISIS Beatles’ by prosecutors for slaughtering four American hostages has avoided spending the rest of his life at a supermax prison. 

El Shafee Elsheikh, 34, will allegedly not be jailed in solitary confinement at the ADX Florence prison in Colorado – but instead he’ll spend his sentence at a less restrictive prison on the same site known as USP Florence High.

Elsheikh received eight life sentences after committing ‘some of the most barbaric terrorist acts ever seen’ as part of the twisted ‘ISIS Beatles’ group – named as such due to their British accents – which captured, tortured and killed a group of journalists and aid workers in Syria in 2014. 

Three of the victims were beheaded on video before the sickening footage was released online by the death cult, shocking the world.

He will live the rest of his days among a general prison population after his lawyers argued for him to avoid the so-called ‘concrete box’ at the supermax prison due to ‘mental health’ issues, according to The Mirror. 

Sources told the paper that the victims’ families ‘don’t know how he evaded Florence’ and that it was a ‘kick in the teeth.’ 

Other prisoners who have spent time at Florence High include Boston Marathon Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Green River serial killer, Gary Ridgway. 

The ADX Florence supermax facility in Colorado, would’ve seen Elsheikh held in isolation for 23 hours a day.

Fellow inmates at the jail include Oklahoma bomber Terry L.Nichols and author of the 1993 attack on the World Trade Centre, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef. 

One of Elsheikh’s accomplices, Alexanda Kotey, 38, was jailed in the US in April for his part in the killings. The terror cell also included ringleader Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John, who was killed in a drone strike in 2015. 

Elsheikh’s warped crimes were branded ‘brutal, callous’ and ‘horrific’ in August as he was handed a life sentence for each of the eight counts he was convicted of in April, which are due to run concurrently. He is expected to appeal and replace his legal team.

Raj Parekh, the attorney representing the families, said Elsheikh remained ‘defiantly remorseless and unrepentant’ during his sentencing. 

He said the jihadist had made no effort to meet victims’ families, like his co-defendant Alexanda Kotey. 

At sentencing, the court heard statements from some of the victims’ loved ones, including those of US journalist James Foley. His mother, Diane Foley, said it was the eight-year anniversary of her son’s death. 

‘This trial has revealed the horrific human rights crimes you committed while part of Isis,’ she told Elsheikh. 

‘Your hatred overtook your humanity.’ 

Becoming audibly emotional, Foley continued: ‘Knowing Jim, my suffering and that of our family would have given Jim the deepest pain. 

‘(But) Jim would say, ‘Elsheikh, you did not kill me. I am alive in my family and friends and their friends. 

‘I live on in those who survived your inhumanity. I am alive in all those who aspire to moral courage. 

‘In many ways I am more alive than I have ever been’.’ 

Addressing Elsheikh again, she added: ‘I pity you for choosing hatred and for succumbing to a false theology.’ 

Elsheikh sat wearing a green prison jumpsuit with white trainers and a black face-covering, and wore glasses. 

At times he appeared to turn his head in the direction of those reading out their statements. 

Elsheikh was allowed the opportunity to speak before receiving his sentence, which he declined. 

Foley was later joined outside court by Carl and Marsha Mueller, the parents of humanitarian worker Kayla Mueller.

Ms Foley said the sentence was a ‘hollow victory’ and called on the American government to do more to free hostages abroad. 

‘As grateful as I am for this sentence, it is a hollow victory,’ she said. 

‘Our country has lost four of its very best citizens, we families lost our loved ones forever and now Elsheikh and Kotey have lost their freedom, country and families. It’s a tragic cycle of violence and heartbreak for all involved.’ 

Mueller said the sentence was ‘just one more step in the process’. 

‘Marsha and I continue to search for Kayla. We continue to search for the truth about what happened to her because we don’t know for sure,’ he said. 

‘We want to bring her home. We want to put her on American soil where she belongs. 

‘This anniversary of Jim’s brutal beheading is the solemn and tragic marker that no family should have to endure.’ 

The families said outside court that his refusal to address them at his sentencing ‘speaks volumes’, adding that they were ‘not shocked’ by his silence. 

Foley said: ‘I had hoped he would speak but I think he just doesn’t want to. He doesn’t want to say he has any regret.’ 

Asked if words from Elsheikh would have made a difference to how she felt, she added: ‘Well, yes, but he didn’t want to so that speaks volumes.’ 

Carl Mueller, father of Kayla Mueller, said: ‘I didn’t expect him to speak. He’s been obviously cold, without remorse, throughout the whole trial. 

‘I still think he believes he was doing the right thing.’ 

Mueller’s wife, Marsha, added: ‘I was hoping he would speak but I wasn’t shocked that he didn’t.’ 

The cell was said to include ringleader Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John; Alexanda Kotey and Elsheikh. Elsheikh was captured alongside Kotey in Syria in 2018 by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces while trying to escape to Turkey. 

Last year, Kotey pleaded guilty to eight counts relating to his involvement, while Davis was jailed in Turkey before being deported to the UK last week and Emwazi was killed in a drone strike. Kotey was given the same sentence of eight concurrent life sentences, also by Judge T.S. Ellis, at the same court in April.

In convicting Elsheikh, the jury concluded that he was part of an Islamic State cell that had beheaded American hostages in Iraq and Syria.

Elsheikh, who was born in Sudan and raised in London, was convicted of conspiring to kill four American hostages: journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and aid workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller. 

All but Mueller were executed in videotaped beheadings that ISIS released online, sickening and horrifying the world. 

Mueller was forced into slavery and raped multiple times by Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before she was killed. 

The deaths of Foley, Sotloff and Kassig were confirmed in 2014, while Mueller’s death was confirmed in early 2015.

Elsheikh’s sentencing hearing came on the eight-year anniversary of the day that ISIS uploaded a video to YouTube showing the gruesome beheading of Foley.

Foley’s mother Diane spoke to reporters following the sentencing hearing, saying: ‘Today we remember four extraordinary young Americans.’

‘These brave Americans saw the suffering of the Syrian people and decided to help, whether by providing humanitarian aid or telling the world about the tragic Syrian crisis. 

‘The left a legacy of profound moral courage,’ she added.

The charges against Elsheikh, whose British citizenship was withdrawn in 2018, carried a potential death sentence, but US prosecutors had agreed not seek his execution in a deal with British officials to carry forward the case. 

Elsheikh’s trial, and emotional testimony from the families of his victims, gripped observers on both sides of the Atlantic, and his sentencing was greeted with grim approval by US and UK officials.

‘This prosecution unmasked the vicious and sadistic ISIS Beatles,’ said First Assistant US Attorney Raj Parekh, noting that Elsheikh and the other Beatles always wore masks when they appeared in front of their hostages. 

‘This is one of the most significant international terrorism cases ever brought to trial,’ said Commander Richard Smith, head of counterterrorism at London’s Metropolitan Police Service, in a statement to DailyMail.com. 

‘These were some of the most barbaric terrorist acts ever seen, carried out with chilling callousness and brutality,’ he added. 

‘I hope that those most affected may take some comfort in knowing that these extremely dangerous men have been brought to justice.’

He added: ‘This is a time to remember all of the victims – those innocent people who were senselessly killed, and also the surviving hostages who experienced unimaginable horrors at the hands of El Shafee Elsheikh and his co-defendant Alexanda Kotey. 

‘They have shown remarkable fortitude and bravery in giving their accounts of what happened to investigators, and in court.’

The Metropolitan Police in London played a key role in bringing Elsheikh to justice by providing evidence to US prosecutors, as part of an international investigation dating back to 2012, when Foley and British journalist John Cantlie were kidnapped in Syria. 

Elsheikh is the most notorious and highest-ranking member of the Islamic State group to ever be convicted in a U.S. Court, prosecutors said. 

The life sentence was a foregone conclusion after a jury convicted him of a slew of heinous crimes earlier this year. 

According to the government, Elsheikh was ‘the lifeblood’ of a ‘horrifying and inhumane hostage-taking scheme’ that saw 26 taken and led to the deaths of the four Americans as well as three British hostages and two Japanese.