The terrorist cell “Beatles” is said to have taken at least 27 hostages and killed some. One member, Aine Davis, now faces charges of financing terrorist activities and firearms possession. Other “Beatles” are serving life sentences.
A suspected member of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist militia cell known as the “Beatles” is on trial in Britain. 39-year-old Aine Davis faces terrorism charges before London’s Old Bailey Criminal Court. The British judiciary accuses him of financing terrorist activities and possessing firearms for terrorist purposes. Davis is said to have belonged to an IS cell in Syria, which was given the name “Beatles” by its hostages because of the British accent of its members. She allegedly held at least 27 foreigners hostage between 2012 and 2015 and killed some of them.
The hostages came from Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Russia and the USA, among others. Among the victims were murdered US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff. Davis was arrested in Turkey in 2015 and sentenced to seven and a half years in prison in 2017. After his release in the summer of 2022, he was deported to the UK and remanded in custody. Davis denies being a member of the “Beatles” cell.
Davis took a seat in the dock of London’s Old Bailey criminal court in a blue sweater. He initially only confirmed his name, but otherwise did not comment. Before the official start of the process, procedural issues were discussed for a long time. Davis’ wife Amal El-Wahabi was sentenced to 28 months in prison in 2014 after trying to send her husband €20,000 to Syria. It was the UK’s first conviction for funding ISIS jihadists.
Two members of the “Beatles” cell, El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Amon Kotey, have been sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States. The fourth “Beatle”, Mohammed Emwazi, who executed the hostages, was killed by a US drone in Syria in 2015.
