UK defends decision to execute the Beatles terrorist cell

Ahmed Lamloum

Britain's representative of the interior minister defended on Tuesday the right of the ministry to retreat its opposition to a US decision about executing two members of a terrorist organization called Beatles cell, which has raised criticism that Britain has undermined its continued opposition to the death penalty in other foreign countries.

"There are no decisions or authority that obliges the government to make such an objection," said lawyer James Eide, an advisor to British Home Secretary Sajid Javid.

The British newspaper "Daily Telegraph" revealed in a report last July, Javid's letter to US Attorney Jeff Sissez, in which the British Interior Minister said that his country would not ask for "assurances" that UK citizens Alexanda Kuti and Shafi'i el-Sheikh will not face the death penalty.
 
Kuti and elSheikh were part of a four-man IS cell called the Beatles, believed to be responsible for the beheading of hostages, and would not receive the death penalty in return for the UK's exchange of information.

The mother of the IS member Shafi'i Sheikh, Maha al-Ghazzuli, appealed to the court about the legality of the step taken by the Ministry of the Interior against her son. "The decision of Javid not to obtain guarantees about  not executing the defendants chalenges the foreign ministry's advice," said al-Ghazuli's lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald.

The death penalty is illegal in the United Kingdom and the British government opposes its use in other countries.