#Alleged #British #ISIS #Beatle #arrested #return #media
A British man accused of being part of an Islamic State (IS) kidnapping and murder squad known as the “Beatles” was reportedly arrested on Wednesday on his return to the UK.
Aine Davis, 38, was arrested after landing at Luton Airport on a flight from Turkey where he was serving a prison sentence on terrorism-related offences, according to BBC News and other British media outlets.
He is said to have been a member of the IS cell that held dozens of foreign hostages in Syria between 2012 and 2015 and was known to its captives as the “Beatles” because of their British accent.
The Metropolitan Police, who lead anti-terrorism investigations in the UK, said in a statement officers had arrested a man at Luton Airport.
But London police, who do not name suspects until they are charged with a crime, did not name the person being held.
“The 38-year-old man was arrested this evening after arriving in the UK on a flight from Turkey,” the statement said.
The Met added he was arrested under several different sections of Britain’s anti-terrorism laws and taken to a south London police station “where he is currently in police custody”.
The Home Office said in a statement that a British national had been deported from Turkey to Britain.
“It would be inappropriate to comment further while the police investigation continues,” she added.
– Two convicted in the US –
The four members of the “Beatles” are accused of kidnapping at least 27 journalists and helpers from the USA, Great Britain, Europe, New Zealand, Russia and Japan.
They are all said to have been involved in the murders of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, as well as assistants Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller.
The quartet allegedly tortured and killed the four American victims, including by beheading, and IS released videos of the killings for propaganda purposes.
Alexanda Kotey, a 38-year-old former British national who was extradited from the UK to face charges in the US in 2020, pleaded guilty to her role in the deaths last September and was sentenced to life in prison in April.
El Shafee Elsheikh, 34, another former British citizen who was also extradited to the US at the same time, was found guilty on all charges in April and will be sentenced next week.
The Beatles’ other executioner, Mohamed Emwazi, was killed by a US drone in Syria in 2015.
Elsheikh and Kotey were captured by a Kurdish militia in Syria in January 2018 and handed over to US forces in Iraq before being sent to the UK.
They were eventually flown to Virginia in 2020 to face charges of kidnapping, conspiracy to murder US citizens and aiding a foreign terrorist organization.
Davis was reportedly serving a seven-and-a-half year prison sentence in Turkey for membership in the terrorist group.
In 2014, his wife Amal El-Wahabi became the first person in the UK to be convicted of financing ISIS jihadists after she tried to send him €20,000 – then worth $25,000 – to Syria.
She was jailed for 28 months and seven days after a trial that described Davis as a drug dealer before he went to Syria to fight ISIS.
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#Alleged #British #ISIS #Beatle #arrested #return #media
