El Shafee Elsheikh
(Picture: AP)The daughter of a British aid worker who was murdered by Islamic State will fly out to the States to confront one of his alleged tormentors.
Bethany Haines, 24, is planning to fly from her home in Perthshire, to Virginia to confront El Shafee Elsheikh in person, nearly eight years after her father, David, was killed.
Elsheikh, formerly from Shepherd’s Bush, was a member of a four-strong group British jihadists dubbed ‘The Beatles’ and is accused of participating in the torture and beheading of Mr Haines and 27 other British, American and foreign hostages in Syria.
He denies the charges.
Ms Haines said she would plead with Elsheikh “to do the right thing” and reveal where the remains of her father and other western hostages lie.
“Don’t do it for me,” she will tell him. “Do it for my son, so that he can finally say goodbye to his grandad.”
She told the Sunday Times she will be in court every day of the trial and will read out a victim impact statement if Elsheikh is convicted.
“I’ve prepared for this for years,” she said. “I want to be able to see him at all times; to see his facial expressions.”
The landmark federal trial will be the first time such evidence has been levelled against IS in open court, as many of its senior members had died in battle.
Elsheikh has not been charged with the abduction or murder of Mr Haines, 44, who was captured in 2013, because of the US’s lack of jurisdiction.
However, he has been indicted over the killings of American citizens James Foley, Peter Kassig, Kayla Mueller and Steven Sotloff, and faces a life sentence.
Elsheikh has previously told American interrogators that another member of the Beatles terrorist cell – Mohammed Emwazi, known as “Jihadi John” – buried Mr Foley, but had burned the body of Mr Sotloff.
The trial is expected to run for up to four weeks and could hear from as many as 70 witnesses.
The US had previously agreed to drop the death penalty as an option in the case in exchange for access to sensitive operational information from British authorities.
