Mike Haynes is in the United States to read a victim impact statement as Londoner Alexandra Cotei is convicted of her role in the killing of four hostages by a terrorist group. The band, named The Beatles because of their English accent, is said to have consisted of leader Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John, Aine Davis, El Shafee Elsheikh and Kotey, and were responsible for the brutal killings of several Western prisoners. , believed to include Britons Alan Henning and David Haynes. The charges against Kotey and his co-accused Elsheikh, who was convicted after the trial this month, concern only U.S. victims, but both he and Elsheikh will appear in court in Virginia on Friday, when the families of those killed by him core terrorists will turn to the judge for their collective loss. Picture: Alexanda Kotey (left) with El Shafee Elsheikh Elsheikh is expected to be sentenced later. Mr Haines, a RAF veteran and former mental health nurse, said: “In some ways I’m obviously very nervous and in others I’m looking forward to looking at them, to putting a line behind what happened. “And that’s the real reason (to) go out to read my impact statement in court – to draw a line in the sand and say, ‘Yes, you played a big role in my family life, you had a commitment to my family life. “However, now, that stops.” Image: In 2014, a memorial service was held for David Haines And in an excellent show of hate rejection, Mr. Haines added: “What I would like to hear, though I do not think it will ever happen, is for Kotey to say, ‘Sorry, what we did was wrong.’ “And if that happened, (to say) ‘What we did was not about Islam … it was about spreading terror’, then I would shake his hand.” Elsheikh, Kotey and Emwazi knew each other in England before joining IS. Elsheikh was arrested along with Kotey in Syria in 2018 by US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces while trying to escape to Turkey. “Look him in the eyes” Davis was jailed in Turkey and Emuazi was killed in an unmanned aerial vehicle attack, while Cotei pleaded guilty last year to eight counts of involvement in the hostage-taking plot. Mr Haines, from Dundee, Scotland, said he would appreciate the opportunity to sit down with Kotey to “look him in the eye and tell him he was deceived”. Haynes’s 44-year-old younger brother was arrested by militants in Syria in March 2013 while delivering aid to a war-torn country. His assassination the following year shocked the world when a video of his barbaric execution was used as propaganda by the Beatles. The family does not yet know what happened to the body. Read more: Who are the Islamic State fighters nicknamed “The Beatles”? However, Mr Haines, who heads the educational charity Global Acts Of Unity in honor of his brother, said it was “not important” for him to know where David’s remains were. “Wherever David’s remains are, whatever has happened to them … David continues to walk with me,” he said. At the end of the presentation, I feel him caressing my back and saying: “Nice”. “My brother walks with me and I do not need his remains to mourn.” Haynes, 55, said he continues to be plagued by terrorist attacks around the world and was actually in Manchester on the night of the suicide bombing at the Arena that killed 22 people in 2017. He said: “Every time we hear about an attack, there is sadness in our hearts, because we know that this club we belong to has just expanded – the club that no one wants to be a member of and has family members and loved ones who have been injured. , mutilated or killed in a terrorist act. “However, what we have seen over and over again is the way people respond to terror attacks. “What we are trying to do with the Global Acts of Unity is to show that if we react with hatred, extremists and terrorists will win. And they will not win.” Kotey is expected to be sentenced to life in prison, but could still be taken to the United Kingdom to stand trial for the deaths of Mr Haines and Mr Henning.
