Britain Presses U.S. to Avoid Death Penalty for ISIS Suspects
Source: New York Times
By ADAM GOLDMAN, ERIC SCHMITT and CHARLIE SAVAGE FEB. 28, 2018
WASHINGTON — The British government wants the Trump administration to provide assurances that American prosecutors will not seek the death penalty against two British Islamic State suspects who were recently captured in Syria — and is threatening to withhold important evidence about them as leverage, according to officials familiar with the deliberations.
The British are also insisting that the United States promise to prosecute the two men in a civilian court, rather than taking them to the Guantánamo Bay wartime prison, the officials said.
The two men, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, are believed to be half of a cell of four British jihadists called the Beatles, who played a central role in torturing and killing Western hostages, including several Americans.
Mr. Kotey and Mr. Elsheikh were the last members of the group still at large until their recent capture in Syria by a Kurdish militia, which is holding them. Recently, the British defense secretary, Gavin Williamson, said his government did not want to take back the two men, who have been stripped of British citizenship, so the United States is expected to eventually take custody of them.
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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/us/politics/britain-death-penalty-isis.html
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