El Shafee Elsheikh
Charged: October 06, 2020
Affiliation
ISIS
State
Virginia
District
Eastern District of Virginia
Sting
No
Involves Informant
No
Charges
- Hostage taking
- Material support
- Attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries
FISA Notification
No
Found Guilty: April 14, 2022
Sentenced: August 19, 2022
Imprisonment
LIFE
Details
Age
UnknownGender
MaleRace
Unknown
El Shafee Elsheikh, a former British citizen, was allegedly a member of the so-called "Beatles," a group of English-accented ISIS fighters who abducted and killed American, British and Japanese citizens. Syrian Democratic Forces captured Elsheikh and Alexanda Amon Kotey, another alleged member of the "Beatles," and the pair were extradited to the United States. Prosecutors allege their American victims included James Wright Foley, Kayla Jean Mueller, Steven Joel Sotloff, and Peter Edward Kassig.
About this database
This database of terrorism prosecutions and sentencing information was created using public records including three lists of prosecutions from the U.S. Department of Justice (from 2010, 2014, and 2015), court files available through the federal judiciary’s case management system, DOJ press releases, and inmate data from the Bureau of Prisons. For each defendant in the database, U.S. criminal code data related to charges has been categorized according to this legend.
Trevor Aaronson created the first iteration of this database as part of a project funded by the Investigative Reporting Program at the University of California, Berkeley. Mother Jones magazine published that data in 2011, along with accompanying articles, in a package that is still available online.
Beginning in 2016, Aaronson and Margot Williams collaborated to update and expand the database, with a new emphasis to include Bureau of Prisons data because so many post-9/11 terrorism defendants had been released. The cases include any prosecutions after September 11, 2001, that the U.S. government labeled as international terrorism-related. The Intercept first published this database on April 20, 2017, and it was last updated on .
This database, which can be downloaded as a CSV file, is licensed under Creative Commons for noncommercial uses with appropriate attribution. If you publish this database, in part or whole, you must credit Trevor Aaronson and Margot Williams.
Trevor Aaronson created the first iteration of this database as part of a project funded by the Investigative Reporting Program at the University of California, Berkeley. Mother Jones magazine published that data in 2011, along with accompanying articles, in a package that is still available online.
Beginning in 2016, Aaronson and Margot Williams collaborated to update and expand the database, with a new emphasis to include Bureau of Prisons data because so many post-9/11 terrorism defendants had been released. The cases include any prosecutions after September 11, 2001, that the U.S. government labeled as international terrorism-related. The Intercept first published this database on April 20, 2017, and it was last updated on .
This database, which can be downloaded as a CSV file, is licensed under Creative Commons for noncommercial uses with appropriate attribution. If you publish this database, in part or whole, you must credit Trevor Aaronson and Margot Williams.
Credits
Database compiled by Trevor Aaronson and Margot Williams
Data Visualization: Moiz Syed
Developers: Akil Harris, Westley Hennigh-Palermo
Editors: Sharon Weinberger, Andrea Jones, Roger Hodge, Eseosa Olumhense
Additional Research: Alleen Brown, Malak Habbak, John Thomason
Art Direction: Philipp Hubert, Soohee Cho
Product Manager: LJ Ruell
Research Director: Lynn Dombek
Editor-in-Chief: Betsy Reed
Data Visualization: Moiz Syed
Developers: Akil Harris, Westley Hennigh-Palermo
Editors: Sharon Weinberger, Andrea Jones, Roger Hodge, Eseosa Olumhense
Additional Research: Alleen Brown, Malak Habbak, John Thomason
Art Direction: Philipp Hubert, Soohee Cho
Product Manager: LJ Ruell
Research Director: Lynn Dombek
Editor-in-Chief: Betsy Reed
