Theresa May BACKS Sajid Javid over death penalty for the ISIS Beatles: PM 'supports' Home Secretary's secret letter dismissing need for assurances that notorious jihadis won't be EXECUTED in the US
- Alexanda Kotey and Shafee El-Sheikh are set to be tried in US for ISIS atrocities
- 'Beatles' ringleader Mohammed Emwazi was killed in an airstrike in 2015 in Syria
- Sajid Javid said Britain will not need 'assurances' pair will avoid the death penalty
- Downing Street now says PM 'supports' plan not to get death penalty assurances
- British govt has not formally opposed the pair being sent to Guantanamo Bay
- Ministers confirm that Kotey and El-Sheikh have been stripped of citizenship
- Downing Street says that the PM was 'aware of the plans' and 'supports' them
Ministers today insisted the ISIS 'Beatles' are not British any more amid a major row over the UK refusing to seek assurances they will not be executed in the US.
And Prime Minister Theresa May now says she backed the decision not to get death penalty assurances from Washington rather than merely being 'made aware' of it.
When asked if Mrs May approved of the Home Secretary Sajid Javid's decision, a Downing Street spokeswoman initially said she 'made aware' of it and the Government opposes the death penalty 'in all circumstances as a matter of principle'.
Number 10 later moved, saying Mrs May 'supports' the Home Secretary's handling of the case and hopes it will end with the two men remaining in prison for the rest of their lives.
'The ultimate aim for all of us in our discussions with the US is to make sure that these men face the rest of their lives in prison. That is also what the victims' families want,' said the Downing Street spokeswoman.
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Alexanda Kotey (pictured left) and Shafee El-Sheikh (pictured right) will be tried in US courts for their role in ISIS related activities
The spokesman added: 'In this instance, after careful and considered advice, the Government took the decision not to seek assurances. That was deemed by ministers to be appropriate.
'The Prime Minister was aware of these plans and supports the way that these are being handled.'
Security minister Ben Wallace sparked anger in the Commons by telling MPs that seeking the death penalty 'might get in the way' of justice.
He confirmed for the first time that the notorious jihadis captured in Syria have been stripped of citizenship.
He also dismissed concerns that the pair - Alexanda Kotey and Shafee El-Sheikh - are being illegally 'rendered' with approval from the UK authorities, saying they would have the benefit of the 'rule of law and due process' in America.
Mr Wallace told the Commons the 'reality' was that Britain did not have enough evidence to try the jihadis in this country, and there was a better chance of them being brought to justice in the US. 'We thought the best place was the United States,' he said.
The staunch defence of the government's position came as Home Secretary Sajid Javid faced a major backlash for telling the US he would not seek guarantees that the notorious jihadis will be spared execution.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid (pictured) faces a major backlash today after making clear Britain will not block the death penalty for the ISIS 'Beatles'
A leaked letter from Mr Javid to US Attorney General Jeff Sessions suggested Britain was ready to share intelligence so the pair - can be prosecuted under American laws.
The commitments, made last month according to the Daily Telegraph, drew accusations that Mr Javid had 'unilaterally' scrapped Britain's opposition to the death penalty and torture camp Guantanamo Bay.
Downing Street initially offered only lukewarm support for the move this morning - but this afternoon the PM's spokeswoman made clear she supported the stance.
'The ultimate aim for all of us is to make sure these men face the rest of their lives in prison. That is also what the victims' families want,' the spokeswoman said.
'In this instance after careful and considered advice the Government took the decision not to seek assurances, that was deemed by ministers to be appropriate.
'The Prime Minister was aware of these plans and supports the way these are being handled.'
Taliban prisoners in orange jumpsuits at Guantanamo Bay. The UK government has not formally opposed the ISIS pair being sent to the American detention centre
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The 'Beatles' pair – nicknamed after the British band because of their English accents - were involved in jihadist activity and became one of the Islamic State's most notorious terrorist silos.
They were led by the infamous Jihadi John – also English - whose real name was Mohammed Emwazi and was killed by a drone strike in Syria three years ago.
The terrorist group was behind the murder US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning and aid worker and Iraq war veteran Peter Kassig.
Kotey and Shafee El-Sheikh were captured in January earlier this year as they attempted to flee, and are being held by the US-backed Syrian Defence Force.
In March they were spoke to journalists from where they are being detained in northern Syria and complained that the 'illegal' withdrawal of their UK citizenship put them at risk of 'rendition and torture'.
In his letter to Mr Sessions, dated June 22, Mr Javid wrote that the UK will not need 'assurances' that the pair will avoid the death penalty.
'I am of the view that there are strong reasons for not requiring a death penalty assurance in this specific case, so no such assurances will be sought,' he wrote.
'I have instructed my officials to set out the terms of our assistance and to work with your officials to action the request. As you are aware, it is the long held position of the UK to seek death penalty assurances, and our decision in this case does not reflect a change in our policy on assistance in US death penalty cases generally, nor the UK Government's stance on the global abolition of the death penalty.'
'Intelligence' garnered by the Metropolitan police and the FBI show that security agencies have been investigating the Beatles for four years as part of a criminal inquiry involving 14 other countries.
Mr Javid wrote that 'kidnap and murder' were among the crimes being looked into and suggested that the UK's Crown Prosecution Service might not be able to deal with the pair effectively under current legislation.
He wrote: 'Ensuring foreign fighters face justice raises a real challenge for all our jurisdictions, however in this instance we believe that a successful federal prosecution in the US is more likely to be possible because of differences in your statute book and the restrictions on challenges to the route by which defendants appear in US courts.
'The US currently has additional charges for terrorism offences which are not available under UK criminal law, and those offences carry long sentences.'
Anger in the Commons
Answering an urgent question in the Commons, Mr Wallace denied Mr Javid had changed the UK's policy
'We're not talking about UK citizens,' he said.
He added: 'Who are we to deny that to those victims in the United States if the United Kingdom holds some of that evidence that may make it possible?'
Mr Wallace went on: 'We should not forget that the crimes that we're talking about involve the beheading and videoing of those beheading dozens of innocent people by one of the most abhorrent organisations walking this earth.'
He was quizzed from all sides of the chamber as he sought to explain the decision.
Isis beheading victim Alan Henning was kidnapped on Boxing Day 2013. The taxi driver from Manchester was captured before being beheaded by Jihadi John in October 2014
Labour former minister Yvette Cooper, who chairs the Commons home affairs committee, accused ministers of 'ripping up' the UK's principles.
She said: 'The whole House would agree that those who commit barbaric crimes should be locked away for the rest of their lives, but what the minister has said today is a contradiction of the longstanding abolition of the death penalty strategy.
'In this case the Home Secretary seems to have unilaterally ripped up those principles on a Friday afternoon in summer.'
In answer to Lib Dem MP Sir Ed Davey, who pressed for a fuller explanation, Mr Wallace said: 'Because we are interested in seeking criminal justice in line with international law and where we feel that the assurance might get in the way of being able to do that... if he faced the choice of either having to see these people go free and wander round potentially his city, or indeed go to trial, then of course he may take a different view.'
Mr Wallace was also forced to defend the decision to his own backbenchers - with Tory former attorney general Dominic Grieve telling MPs the decision represented a 'major departure from normal policy'.
He added: 'Those are the key questions and until they're answered I have to say to him this issue is going to continue to haunt the Government.'
He added: 'Simply to say if we were unable to prosecute them in this country we should simply let them free to roam around the United Kingdom because it would upset (Ms Abbott) not to share our evidence with the United States is simply bizarre and not justice to the victims.'
Mr Wallace said ministers have complied with the European Convention on Human Rights and due process.
But shadow attorney general Baroness Chakrabarti said: 'Sajid Javid appears to have secretly and unilaterally abandoned Britain's opposition to the death penalty. By doing so he is not just playing with the lives of these particular terrorists but those of other Britons - including potentially innocent ones - all over the world.
'Just as we should be persuading countries like the US and Iran to drop the death penalty, Sajid Javid appears to be encouraging this grave human rights abuse.'
Lord Carlile, a former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation and Lib Dem MP, said a 'decades old' policy was being ditched.
'It is a dramatic change of policy by a minister, secretly, without any discussion in parliament,' he said.
'It flies in the face of what has been said repeatedly and recently by the Home Office - including when Theresa May was home secretary - and very recently by the highly-respected security Minister Ben Wallace.
'Britain has always said that it will pass information and intelligence, in appropriate cases, provided there is no death penalty. That is a decades-old policy and it is not for the home secretary to change that policy.'
Execution could make the two men 'martyrs'
Mr Foley's mother, Diane, said she was opposed to the death penalty, warning it would make the two men 'martyrs in their twisted ideology'.
'I would like them held accountable by being sent to prison for the rest of their lives,' she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
David Haines (pictured) spent his career as an aid worker helping to protect innocent civilians in developing nations. He was the first victim of Jihadi John
Although the letter from Mr Javid does not mention Guantanamo Bay, another note from the same day obtained by the Telegraph was headed 'official sensitive' and read that UK ministers had shared information 'without seeking death penalty assurances'.
Under a section headed 'Guantanamo Bay', it read: 'If the US deems a federal prosecution not possible, they might seek transfer of Kotey and El-Sheikh to Guantanamo Bay (GTMO).
'Although HMG 'Her Majesty's Government' will not lobby the US to not send them to GTMO, we will maintain our long-standing position that GTMO should close.
'GTMO is seen by many as acting as a recruiting sergeant for extremists' intent on undermining Western values.'
The 'Beatles' pair – nicknamed after the British band because of their English accents - were involved in jihadist activity and became one of the Islamic State's most notorious terrorist silos.
They were led by the infamous Jihadi John – also English - whose real name was Mohammed Emwazi and was killed by a drone strike in Syria three years ago.
Among some of the most deplorable acts carried out by the hit gang were slaughtering journalists, aid workers and holding Westerners hostage.
They murdered two US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning and aid worker and Iraq war veteran Peter Kassig.
In 2014 and 2015 they held and tortured 20 hostages.
The Beatles pair were captured in January earlier this year as they attempted to flee anti-Islamic State.
The Home Office would not comment on the leaked documents and reiterated its position on the detention facility.
A Home Office spokeman said: 'We continue to engage with the US Government on this issue, as we do on a range of national security issues and in the context of our joint determination to tackle international terrorism and combat violent extremism.
'The UK Government's position on Guantanamo Bay is that the detention facility should close.'
Who were the Beatles jihadists?
'Ringo': A 'polite' west London boy who fought for ISIS
Alexanda Kotey, said to be a fan of Queens Park Rangers, was also described by neighbours as a 'polite' boy
Alexanda Kotey, said to be a fan of Queens Park Rangers, was once described by neighbours as a 'polite' boy.
But after he left the UK to join ISIS in Syria, he used social media to continue radicalising young men, an old friend told ITV.
They added: 'The way he secretly operated he was a roadman, a gangster.
'He had the skills of influencing people he could see as influential or vulnerable so they could bring their friends in.
'They would have used the same tactics as gangs to recruit people. Like grooming, he gave them a sense of belonging.
'They couldn't get job or uni course they wanted.
'Through remote network and services, he would have people he delegated responsibility to. They could have helped and advise them on how to get to Syria.'
Father-of-two Kotey, who is half Ghanaian, half Greek Cypriot, is believed to have been one of ISIS' key recruiters and helped them radicalise young men from London.
He used to be a member of the Greek Orthodox Church but is said to have converted to Islam in his teens.
He attended the al-Manaar mosque in Ladbroke Grove, west London, with Emwazi and Davis, it was reported.
A local community worker said the trio were 'physically ejected' from the mosque because of their extremist views.
They said 'He would definitely be standing there with, I'd say a dozen boys all listening to him. He was the speaker. He was the spokesman in that little group.
'It was Alex most definitely who was the lynchpin. The mosque did so much to keep these people at the fringes.'
'George': Former mechanic who beheaded 27 hostages
The fourth and final member of the infamous ISIS execution squad with Jihadi John El Shafee Elsheikh (pictured, as a teen)
The third member of the infamous ISIS execution squad with Jihadi John El Shafee Elsheikh.
Described as a 'kind and softly spoken' former fairground mechanic, from west London, he turned into a ISIS extremist who was part of the gang that beheaded 27 hostages and tortured many more in Syria.
Elsheikh grew up in White City, just a few miles other members of the cell, and his mother said he was radicalised at local mosques within weeks of hearing sermons by infamous hate preacher Hani al-Sibai.
He later travelled to Syria in 2012 to fight his holy war, and his younger brother Mahmoud followed him - and was killed fighting in Iraq last year.
Elsheikh's identity was confirmed by a former US counter-terrorism official and investigators working to find The Beatles.
The terrorist, who lived in Syria with two wives and two young children, has been captured after being hunted by security services on both sides of the Atlantic.
His mother, Maha Elgizouli, revealed how the family moved to White City in west London when Elsheikh was just five years old, along with his two brothers.
Both of his parents had fled the civil war in Sudan in the 1990s - where they were both members of the Communist Party - but the father, a poet, left the family when Elsheikh was just seven years old.
They grew up a few miles from the first of the infamous Beatles group to be exposed, Mohammed Emwazi - who later became known as Jihadi John but was killed in a drone strike in 2015.
'Paul': A west London gangster and gun runner turned ISIS guard
The third so called 'Beatle', Aine Davis, originally from Hammersmith, travelled to Syria to become an ISIS guard
The fourth so called 'Beatle', Aine Davis, originally from Hammersmith, travelled to Syria to become an ISIS guard.
Prior to fleeing the UK, Davis was convicted six times for possessing cannabis and was also heavily involved in gang circles, where he was known as 'Biggz.'
The gangster worked as a gun runner, selling handguns before the weapons factory he worked for was busted by police.
Davis is thought to have converted to Islam shortly after being jailed in the UK in 2006 for possessing a firearm.
The son of a dinner lady and a John Lewis shopworker, he took the name Hamza and travelled the Middle East.
He met his wife Amal el-Wahabi at Westbourne Park mosque in 2006 and despite the disapproval of her parents, they developed a close relationship.
Davis' new found interest in religion led him to persuade his girlfriend that they should move to Yemen.
He was detained by police in Turkey last year on suspicion of plotting a terrorist attack.
His wife, Amal El-Wahabi, was jailed in 2014 for funding terrorism.
When police raided his wife's home, Davis's iPod revealed he used to listen to lectures by radical American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.
The Western hostages tortured, captured and killed by ISIS
American journalist who kept up fellow prisoners' morale
James Foley, from Illinois, USA, was a journalist who first went missing in November 2012
James Foley, from Illinois, in the US, was a journalist who first went missing in November 2012.
On his way to an internet cafe, while reporting for the GlobalPost, he had been taken hostage at gunpoint by militants from the group Jabhat al Nusra in Taftanaz, northern Syria.
Jabhat al Nusra subsequently joined forces with ISIS - which did not exist in anything like its current form when Mr Foley was taken.
Mr Foley joined other prisoners, who were European and British, in the ISIS prison and despite attempts to rescue him, he was eventually murdered by his captors.
His fellow prisoners spoke kindly of Foley, who called people 'Bro' and never argued over shortages of food, despite meagre rations equating to cup of food-a-day, often sharing his portion and his blanket.
Mr Foley often made efforts to maintain prisoners' morale, persuading them to play games and to give talks on their favourite subjects.
He even organised a 'Secret Santa' during Christmas 2013, encouraging hostages to make gifts out of whatever they could find.
ISIS posted his execution video, titled 'A Message to America' to social media as proof of his death.
In scripted remarks before his killing, kneeling in an orange jump suit, he said: 'I wish I could have the hope of freedom and seeing my family once again.
'But that ship has sailed. I guess all in all I wish I wasn't American.'
'The guy lit up a room': US freelance journalist who was an avid rugby player
Steven Sotloff, 31, from Miami, who freelanced for Time and Foreign Policy magazines, vanished in Syria in 2013
US journalist Steven Sotloff, 31, vanished in Syria in August 2013.
Mr Sotloff was not seen again until he appeared in a video released online by ISIS on August 2014, that showed James Foley's beheading.
In a second clip, published weeks later, entitled 'A Second Message to America,' Mr Sotloff appeared in a orange jumpsuit before he is beheaded by an Islamic State fighter.
The grandson of Holocaust survivors, Mr Sotloff grew up Miami, before attending the Kimball Union Academy boarding school in New Hampshire before studying at the University of Central Florida.
While at Kimball, Mr Sotloff was an avid rugby player and on moving to UFC began working for the student newspaper there, the Central Florida Future.
He left this paper in 2005 and began to pursue his dreams of journalism full time.
'The guy lit up a room. He was always such a loyal, caring and good friend to us,' former roommate Josh Polsky told the New York Times.
'If you needed to rely on anybody for anything he would drop everything on a dime for you or for anyone else.'
Sotloff travelled to the Middle East as a freelance journalist and wrote reports from Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Turkey and Syria.
He often had pieces in Time and Foreign Policy magazines.
'A million people could have told him what he was doing was foolish, as it seemed to us outsiders looking in, but to him it was what he loved to do and you weren't going to stop him,' his friend, Emerson Lotzia, said.
'Steve said it was scary over there. It was dangerous. It wasn't safe to be over there. He knew it. He kept going back.'
Scottish father-of-two who spent his career as an aid worker
David Haines, who was beheaded a week after Steven Sotloff, was the first British victim of Jihadi John
David Haines, who was beheaded a week after Steven Sotloff, was the first British victim of Jihadi John.
The father-of-two, from Holderness, East Yorkshire, was taken hostage while working for relief agency ACTED in Syria in March this year.
He was captured near the Atmeh refugee camp, just inside the Syrian border with Turkey.
Mr Haines spent his career as an aid worker helping to protect innocent civilians in developing nations.
For more than two decades, he travelled with aid agencies through Syria, Libya, the former Yugoslavia and South Sudan.
He dedicated his life to promoting peace in places of violent conflict and oversaw projects to save civilians from land mines.
The 44-year-old was described as a hero by his family, who were inspired by him to travel the world on further aid missions.
He had a teenage daughter in Scotland from a previous marriage with his first wife, and a four-year-old daughter, Athea, in Croatia from his second wife.
Mr Haines was brought up in Perth, Scotland, and studied at Perth Academy before joining the military aged 17.
According to his online CV he spent 11 years in the military, holding 'various positions covering security and threat assessments in a number of different countries' between 1988 and 1999.
It did not specify with which armed forces he served, although his ISIS execution video claimed he had been in the Royal Air Force.
His brother Mike later confirmed this, saying he was an engineer.
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