LONDON: Two of the British Daesh terrorists dubbed the “Beatles” further incriminated themselves in mistreating Western hostages in Syria, including American Kayla Mueller.
The two men, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, for the first time admitted their involvement in the captivity of Mueller, an aid worker who was held captive and tortured and sexually abused before her death in 2015.
In interviews obtained by NBC News, Kotey said: “She was in a room by herself that no one would go in.”
Elsheikh got into more detail, saying: “I took an email from her myself,” meaning he got an email address Daesh could use to demand ransom from the family. “She was in a large room, it was dark, and she was alone, and she was very scared.”
Daesh demanded the Muellers pay €5m (£4.55m) and threatened that if the demands weren’t met, they would send the family “a picture of Kayla’s dead body.”
In captivity, Kayla was taken to live with a senior Daesh official, and was raped by the former Daesh leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, US officials have said.
Kayla is believed to have died in 2015 in what Daesh said was a Jordanian airstrike
Kotey and Elsheikh are both in US military custody in Iraq amid questions over how and when they will face justice.
US and British authorities say the so-called Beatles were responsible for 27 killings, including the beheadings of Americans James Foley, Steven Sotloff and Peter Kassig, and British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning.
