A jury has convicted a British national for his role in an Islamic State group hostage-taking scheme that took roughly two dozen Westerners captive a decade ago.
testified that the Beatles delighted themselves rewriting “Hotel California” as “Hotel Osama” and making them sing the refrain “You will never leave.”The guilty finding came even though none of the surviving hostages could identify Elsheikh as one of their captors. Although the Beatles had distinctive accents, they always took great care to hide their faces behind masks and ordered hostages to avoid eye contact or risk a beating.
But testimony showed that he and the other Beatles were far more than paper pushers. The surviving hostages, all of whom were European — the American and British hostages were all killed — testified that they dreaded the Beatles' appearance at the various prisons to which they constantly shuttled and relocated.
“Praise God! I'm so thankful,” said Diane Foley, the mother of James Foley, after the verdicts came in. “I'm so proud of the American justice system. El Shafee Elsheikh was treated with a great deal of mercy. He had four attorneys. ... Hopefully we were able to turn this into justice, not revenge.”She contrasted what she said was the stellar work of the prosecution with what she said was the inaction of government to bring Foley and the other Americans home when they were hostages.
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