British national involved in the death of Kayla Mueller convicted
A jury convicted a British national Thursday for his role in an Islamic State group that kidnapped and killed four Americans nearly a decade ago. One of those hostages was from Arizona.
The convictions on all eight counts in U.S. District Court in Alexandria revolved around the deaths of four American hostages: Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller. All but Mueller were executed in videotaped beheadings circulated online. Mueller was forced into slavery and raped multiple times by Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before she was killed.
Mueller was a humanitarian worker from Prescott who was taken hostage in 2013.
Prosecutors said Elsheikh was one of the notorious “Beatles,” Islamic State captors nicknamed for their accents and known for their cruelty. Surviving hostages testified that the Beatles delighted themselves rewriting “Hotel California” as “Hotel Osama” and making them sing the refrain “You will never leave.”
