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A US court has sentenced a British Islamic State fighter to life imprisonment for his involvement in a terrorist cell.
Shafee Elsheikh, 34, was convicted in April of kidnapping hostages, conspiring to kill US citizens, and supporting a terrorist organization.
The judge described the actions of the Sudanese-born sheikh as “horrific, barbaric, brutal and criminal.”
The sheikh was one of the most prominent ISIS fighters on trial in the United States. The judge said that what the accused had done led to the killing of four American hostages.
The cell kidnapped and killed journalists James Foley and Stephen Sotloff, and aid workers Kayla Mueller and Peter Kassig.
The families of the hostages expressed a mixture of gratitude and disappointment with the outcome. James Foley’s mother, who was standing outside the courtroom on Friday, called the ruling a “hollow victory”, but it showed that “American justice will find you wherever you are”.
“Our country has lost four of its best citizens,” she said. “The families of their loved ones have lost forever.”
The verdict came on the eighth anniversary of Foley’s death. Foley’s mother told the BBC that when she first heard of her son’s death she thought it was a “cruel joke”.
Former hostages of the cell said that the sheikh was a member of a cell called “The Beatles” or “Beetles”, after the name of the famous singing group, because of their British accents.
The three members of the cell, Sheikh, Alexanda Kotey and Mohamed Emwazi, J. grew up in west London and volunteered to fight for the Islamic State in Syria, ending up guarding Western hostages.
US authorities say the group beheaded 27 hostages.
Sheikh was the only one of the three gunmen to stand trial in the United States, after Kotey pleaded guilty to the charges last September, and Emwazi was killed in a 2015 drone attack in Syria.
In April, a 12-person jury deliberated for less than six hours over two days before the sheikh was found guilty.
The grueling 11-day trial included the testimonies of former hostages and their family members. Previous hostages described the cell as brutal.
Eyewitnesses recounted that they were randomly beaten, given names of dogs, and forced to sing a parody of the Eagles’ “Hotel California” after they changed its name to “Hotel Osama.”
Al-Sheikh was sentenced to eight life sentences with no option of parole.
The sheikh has appealed the verdict and his lawyer has been disqualified, which means that he claims that he did not get a fair trial.