BRIT ISIS terrorist Alexanda Kotey was jailed for life in the US over his role in killing Western hostages in Syria yesterday before the daughter of one of his victims told him: “Rot in hell.”
The heartless jihadi didn’t react and walked out of the court room after being forced to listen to agonising victim impact statements.
4
4
4
Bethany Haines – whose dad David, an ex RAF Scot, was executed in 2014 while doing aid work – walked up to Kotey, pointed and told him to “go rot in hell”.
London-born Kotey was one of the so-called Islamic State militants nicknamed The Beatles by their captives due to their English accents.
Kotey, along with ringleader Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John, and El Shafee Elsheikh were responsible for the brutal killings of several Western hostages, including Alan Henning and David Haines.
Bethany said she could never forgive her father’s “remorseless” killers.
“These two men are selfish and only care about themselves and until they accept their actions, admit to what they’ve done, and apologise, then there is no chance they will be forgiven by me. I have no pity for them,” she told the court.
She added: “Celebrating birthdays or Christmas is not an enjoyable experience for me anymore.
“My dad should be celebrating with me, but instead he is in a mass grave in the hills of Raqqa.
“He hasn’t been laid to rest, he was dumped like a bag of rubbish.”
Most read in The Scottish Sun
She said she had “struggled wondering why monsters, like these two men, are on this earth but my father isn’t”.
Kotey was emotionless as Judge Thomas Selby Ellis handed his verdict down at Alexandria District Court, Virginia, as Kotey’s family watched on from the public gallery.
The 38-year-old was given a life sentence for each of the eight counts he pleaded guilty to and which are being run concurrently.
Judge Ellis described the sick jihadi’s actions as “egregious, violent and inhumane”.
Speaking of Kotey’s victims, the judge said: “These were not prisoners of war, these weren’t soldiers in the field… they were soldiers for good.”
Athea Haines, Haines other daughter, told the court she was just four when her father was killed – she is 11 now.
The girl sobbed into her mothers arms as she said: “I miss him so much. Sometimes I get sad when I see my friends from school and club laughing and playing with their dads.
“That is something I will never have a chance to do again. It is not easy to be that kid in school whose dad was killed by terrorists”.
Meanwhile, Shirley Sotloff, the mother of slain journalist Steven Sotloff, walked closer to Kotey and Elsheikh to address them and demanded they look at her.
She said: “The sickness in our stomachs the minute we wake up and the psychological trauma that we relive over and over and over.
“We are forever broken by the loss of our beloved son and defined as the people from the horror movie”.
Kotey pleaded guilty to charges in September last year and apparently agreed to co-operate with US authorities as part of his plea deal.
His charges included four counts of hostage taking resulting in death; conspiracy to commit hostage taking resulting in death; conspiracy to murder US citizens outside the country; conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, hostage taking and murder, resulting in death; and conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organisation resulting in death.
Kotey admitted he left the UK with the belief that “the Islamic concept of armed jihad was a valid and legitimate cause and means by which a Muslim defends his fellow Muslim against injustice”.
He also admitted to capturing hostages and said when that came to an end, he moved onto working in ISIS’ recruitment division.
His charges were in relation to the slaying of four US hostages – journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller.
Kotey’s co-defendant, Elsheikh, was convicted earlier this month and is expected to be sentence at a later date.
Emwazi was killed in a drone strike in 2015, and Davis was jailed in Turkey in 2017.
Kotey grew up in Paddington, West London, and has been described as having a Ghanaian and Greek-Cypriot background.
The jihadi, believed to be aged around 36, was a convert to Islam as a teenager.
It is not clear when he fled to Syria but his family said in 2019 that they were “deeply distressed” after he was unmasked as one of the gruesome foursome.
He is believed to have lived in West London until 2009 when he travelled to Gaza in an aid convoy.
4
Stay connected with us on social media platform for instant update click here to join our Twitter, & Facebook
We are now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@TechiUpdate) and stay updated with the latest Technology headlines.
For all the latest World News Click Here
