The brother of murdered aid worker David Haines said he is prepared to stare down the so-called Islamic State terrorists accused of murdering his sibling when he comes face-to-face with them for the first time later this week. Mike Haines is in the US to read a victim impact statement as Londoner Alexanda Kotey is sentenced for his role in the terror cell’s murder of four hostages.
The group, dubbed The Beatles due to their English accents, was said to be made up of ringleader Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John, Aine Davis, El Shafee Elsheikh and Kotey, and was responsible for the brutal killings of a number of Western captives, believed to include Britons Alan Henning and David Haines. The charges against Kotey, and his co-accused Elsheikh, who was convicted after trial this month, only feature US victims, but both he and Elsheikh will appear in court in Virginia on Friday when the families of those murdered by the terror cell address the judge on their collective loss.
Elsheikh is expected to be sentenced at a later date. Mr Haines, an RAF veteran and former mental health nurse, told the PA news agency: “In some ways obviously I am quite nervous, and in other ways I am looking forward to staring them in the face, to drawing a line behind what has happened.
