London – AFP
British police have charged a 38-year-old former drug dealer, who is suspected of being a member of an ISIS terrorist cell known as “The Beatles”, which specializes in capturing, torturing and executing Western hostages, with multiple terrorist crimes, after his arrest in United kingdom.
Police said in a statement Thursday that Ayn Leslie Davis, who was arrested at Luton Airport in London, will appear in Westminster Magistrates Court on Thursday. Davis, 38, was arrested after arriving at the airport on a flight from Turkey; He was serving a prison sentence for terrorist offences, according to the BBC.
Davis is alleged to be a member of the cell that held dozens of foreign hostages in Syria between 2012 and 2015, known as “The Beatles” because of its members’ British accents.
An earlier statement by the London police confirmed the arrest of a man at Luton Airport, without giving his name, as the suspects do not reveal their identities before they are charged.
“A 38-year-old man was arrested this evening after arriving in the UK on a flight from Turkey,” the statement said, adding that his arrest came under several articles of the Anti-Terrorism Act. The accused was taken, according to the statement, to South London Police Station, “where he is still in police custody.”
In another statement, the Home Office said a Briton was being deported from Turkey to the UK, adding: “It would be inappropriate to provide further comments while the police are conducting their investigations.”
Alexanda Kotey, 38, El Shafei Elsheikh, 34, and Muhammed Emwazi, who was killed in a drone strike, along with Davis, are accused of kidnapping 27 people from the United States, Britain, Europe, New Zealand, Russia and Japan.
The four are alleged to be involved in the murders of American journalists James Foley and Stephen Sotloff, as well as aid workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller.
Britain extradited Alexanda Kote to the US in 2020; He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment last April. Al-Shafi’i, who was also extradited to the US at the same time as Kotey, was convicted of the charges in April and will be sentenced next week.
As for Davis, he spent seven and a half years in a Turkish prison, after being convicted of belonging to a terrorist group, according to reports.
And in 2014, his wife, Amal Al-Wahhabi, became the first person in Britain to be convicted of financing the terrorist organization, after she tried to send 20,000 euros to him in Syria, and she was imprisoned for 28 months and seven days, after a trial revealed that Davis was a drug dealer, before he moved to Syria.
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