LONDON — An alleged member of an Islamic State group cell nicknamed “The Beatles” that tortured and killed Western hostages was charged with terrorism offenses in Britain Thursday after being deported from Turkey.
Aine Davis, 38, appeared in a London court docket after being arrested on Wednesday night time when he arrived on a flight from Turkey and was charged with offenses beneath the Terrorism Act, the Metropolitan Police Service mentioned.
Davis, from Hammersmith in west London, was accused of persuading his spouse to try to smuggle round $20,000 to him in Syria, utilizing a pal who hid the cash in her knickers.
He was additionally accused of possessing a firearm for terrorist functions after posing with a Kalashnikov assault rifle in footage he despatched to his spouse in Britain.
During his look on Thursday at London’s Westminster Magistrates Court, Senior District Judge Paul Goldspring ordered Davis held in custody till his subsequent court docket look on Sept. 2. Davis spoke briefly to verify his identify and date of start; he wasn’t requested to enter a plea.
He was arrested in Turkey in 2015 and convicted of membership of ISIS in 2017. During his trial there, he denied being one of “The Beatles.”
The militants, dubbed “The Beatles” by their captives as a result of of their British accents, held about two dozen Westerners a decade in the past, when ISIS managed a big swath of Syria and Iraq.
Several of the captives had been killed in ugly beheadings that had been broadcast on-line, together with Americans James Foley and Steven Sotloff and Britons David Haines and Alan Henning.
The group’s 4 alleged members knew each other in West London earlier than touring to the Middle East and becoming a member of ISIS.
Mohammed Emwazi, who carried out the executions and was nicknamed “Jihadi John,” was killed in a drone strike in 2015. Two others, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, had been captured by U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in 2018 and are imprisoned in the U.S.
Kotey, 38, was jailed for all times in Virginia in April, after admitting kidnap, conspiracy to homicide and offering materials help for terrorism. Elsheikh, 33, was discovered responsible following a trial in the U.S. and might be sentenced later this 12 months.
During his trial in Turkey, Davis mentioned he believed he had been linked to Emwazi as a result of the lads had attended the identical mosque in London.
He had travelled to Syria earlier in the nation’s civil conflict to take part in assist work however had largely been dwelling in Turkey, he informed the Turkish court docket, dismissing photos exhibiting him posing with armed militants and weapons as “stupid photos” that he had posed for as a joke.
Davis’s spouse, Amal el-Wahabi, was jailed for 2 years and 4 months in November 2014 for attempting to smuggle 20,000 euros to Davis, utilizing a pal as a courier.
Her pal, Nawal Msaad, a college scholar, was cleared by a jury on the Old Bailey after she informed them she didn’t know what the cash was for.