El Shafee Elsheikh, 33, a former British citizen, was sentenced to life in US prison
A member of the so-called ‘Beatles’ Islamic State cell has been sentenced to serve life in an American prison for his role in a hostage-taking plot that led to the beheadings of US journalists and aid workers.
El Shafee Elsheikh was sentenced on Friday by US District Court Judge T.S. Ellis, who rejected his lawyer’s plea not to send him to the notorious ADX Florence supermax facility in Colorado, where prisoners are held in isolation for 23 hours a day.
The federal Bureau of Prisons will determine where Elsheikh spends the rest of his natural life, with no conditions imposed by the court, Ellis ruled.
Elsheikh, 33, a former British citizen, was previously found guilty of all charges by a federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia in April after a six-week trial. The jury took only four hours to deliberate.
In convicting Elsheikh, the jury concluded that he was part of an Islamic State cell,…
